Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Off the Deep End


Another in the Bathing Beauty Series
Despite being composed of fun and lively colors, this new collage represents the feeling of being overwhelmed. This work was inspired by my grandmother who passed away recently just shy of her 90th birthday. My grandmother grew up on a farm in Nova Scotia, Canada. Somehow, Gerri never learned to swim, but that didn't stop her. When she was an adult, after ALL of her eight children were grown, she decided to take swimming lessons at the local YMCA so that she might participate in their synchronized swimming group. My grandmother learned something new every day, she made a point of it. 

There are swimming illustrations from an instructional swimming book in the background which represent the daunting task of learning to swim as an adult. And that colorful orange cap represents synchronized swimming and all the joy it brought my grandmother later in her life.

4 comments:

  1. THanks Robin. I think it's even better in person. It will be in our show at SCC in SEptember.

    ReplyDelete
  2. hey thanks for the tip about the tissue paper! I sealed the hell out of them, so I guess I'll have to watch them. I love your work! I had no idea someone was so good at tearing tiny piecies of paper! You are now my Idol.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Chelsea mae, the sealing won't help them. it's the UV light that fades them, unfortunately. I did these great pieces early on in my collage career, and I used a lot of tissue, they faded a LOT and I ended up tinting those areas the faded with acrylic on top. it salvaged them, but I learned my lesson! I buy hand-made and art papers from local paper makers and online. if you look on the right hand column of my blog, you will see a link for the paper place I buy from.

    I am happy to be your idol! Thanks for the compliments. I had no idea I could be a collage idol. That rocks.

    ReplyDelete

thank you for taking the time to read and comment! :)