This week I enjoyed teaching a zoom class for the Collage Artists of America. (THANK YOU to CAA)
In talking through my journey as an artist, I told them a story. I like this story so I will share it again here in this week’s blog. If this were church we would call this my testimony – the moment after which I saw everything differently.
Around 2010, as I was beginning to experiment with mixed media, monotype printing and paper collage, I was creating compositions comprising various shapes and things: leaves, rectangles, bottles, birds and fish.
Detail - paper collage monotype printed rice paper collaged to watercolor paper
I loved creating these works. (I still do enjoy paper collages and create them regularly as a change of pace between quilts.)
But one day in the studio something happened.
I drew the shape of a small paper doll girl and created her as a stencil. It is a childlike, innocent image. When I inserted her in a collage, everything changed.
Shallow Soil 24” x 24’ paper Collage
Before the paper doll, this simple artwork was about textures and color, with the organic form of a plant to balance the empty space.
After the paper doll was added the artwork became a metaphor for someone’s life. A small, innocent character. In a barren place. Insufficient sustenance. Like a seed planted in shallow soil, lacking what she needed to grow.
I had inserted my own self and my memories of childhood into what was otherwise simply a pleasing composition.
It changed everything.
I realized at once that I could create artwork about ideas.
I realized that I could create work with emotional content.
I realized that I could begin a body of work that had someplace to go – that the ideas might change and mature.
Since that time, I have devoted my work to creating art that is about something – ideas and emotions and memories – with the little girl as the recurring symbol.
Overlooked (Detail) Art Quilt 42” x 42” 2018
Recurring Dream (Detail) Art Quilt 45” x 43” 2025
American Dram Dream (Detail) Art Quilt 27” x 44” 2025
Finally, this very week, in my studio on my easel, front and center in a work-in-progess, depicted as a paper doll, once again, there I am.
As she reappears in my work, I understand that she – and I – still have more to say.
As you look at other artists’ artworks, you will deepen your enjoyment and appreciation when you discover the story in their works. What interests them? What do they care about?
And, if you are an artmaker, your own journey will deepen and be more meaningful to you as you discover that in your own work.
Happy creating.
. . . . . .
For all of us: focus each day on the good
that needs to be done in the world.
Be part of doing it.
Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
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