These collages came out of the stress—trauma—of living under the current US government. At first, I was mostly stunned, felt disbelief and betrayal. Those emotions grew into fear and anger, and I became physically and emotionally ill. My insomniac nights increased. So I began responding—writing, publishing, speaking out. I stopped inundating myself with the news. And I got out needle and thread, paper, scissors and glue.

 

Viewers, listeners, readers, and makers get a broader, firmer place to stand through the arts, and that can help us to be more in touch with the complex, comprehensive sense of what’s true and real, a larger awareness of life, a reverence for mystery, as well as ways to interact with it, and profound experiences of the spiritual, mystical, the divine.

 

I began working on these figures in January. They came quickly, leading me on, first into one and then into the next. I didn’t go looking for them, rather, they came to me. They came out of a crisis of faith and understanding.

 

Please meet my friends, the Guardians, Olivia Olivia, Octavia La Verne, Celandine Coral, The Falconer, Marian Anderson, and The Happy Family: Protea, Lucretia (aka Lucky) & Sparky!