Work-in-progress: engaging your ghosts
These little people don't exist anymore. Neither does the landscape where they sit.
They're not dead, of course: that's me and my brother as preschoolers. But Halloween reminds me of my fascination with stories and lives that might have been.
The little girl in these family photos was scared of almost everything: monsters, getting lost, upsetting someone or not being liked... the list was endless. Right now, I'm living through the scariest presidential election season I've ever experienced. But I've also lived long enough to know the outcome will not signal the end of the world. (Probably. I could be wrong this time.)
Halloween is supposed to be the time of year when 'the veil between worlds is at its thinnest.' I've always loved the idea of reaching other worlds, real or fictional, and I realize there may be some horrors when we get there. But I suppose I can stand some of the horrors, as long as I get the magic too.
Collage in progress: the little prince
You know about The Little Prince, right? (Not that one. This one.)
Credit: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (U.S. public domain, copyrighted in France until 2045)
I'm working on a collage homage to the little prince, so to speak. This summer, I noticed NASA celebrated the 45th anniversary of the first moon landing by uploading photos from all the missions to Flickr. I'm now remixing a few of those images with my family photos, on watercolor paper.
The book's watercolor illustrations pulled me into that other universe so long ago I don't even remember the first time I saw them. But even as a kid, I understood the themes of alienation and connection perfectly. Not that I could have told you this back then, but I knew alienation isn't just loneliness, or even being alone by choice.
Museum of the Little Prince, Hakone, Japan. Credit: arieM1FLERéunion/ Wikimedia Commons
It's also about the parallel experience of not quite living in the same reality as the person next to you. Even when the other person is your friend, that connection is always tenuous and changing. You might remember I also explored those ideas in my most recently completed piece. So as I continue to work on the Great Mystery Project, I find that head space melancholy but also full of potential and anticipation. More to come.
(And if you haven't read The Little Prince, what are you waiting for? It's less than 100 pages. I know -- I've read it in both French and English.)
Seems all I do is wait
I have elements prepped for the collages I'm planning. Even got a little help from my studio assistant the other day.
Got an idea for another pair of collages too, as I was cleaning up after breakfast.
But I'm still waiting for a break in the action to put the collage elements together. That time seems so elusive from this viewpoint.
Sigh... cross your fingers for me that the kids will sleep late on the weekend and that they'll spend all their waking moments playing outside. Might get some more work and thinking done then.