The Lesson
This is another collage from my Escape Series (I posted Masked Mime earlier). This is the first in the series. They are all in the collage gallery on my web site. The following is what I wrote to go with the series:
paper memories gessoed together…forming a personal narrative from a time gone by. remnants of paper…remnants of life.
I rarely post my collages, for some reason it is usually my paintings that find their way here. I have been doing a lot of reflecting lately. Maybe the subject of my last two posts brought some things to the surface…I do not know.
When I made this collage it was a healing process, for lack of better words, a letting go. Of course, that is my Father and me along with some of the symbols and creatures that seem to appear and re-appear a lot in my world (heart, butterfly, crow, alligator, moon, forest, masks, etc). As with many of us, our dear Father was our earliest spiritual teacher. You probably notice that the “remnants” are all black and white, save the heart. The spiritual lesson was the same he had inherited from his parents, our beloved Grandparents. Though lovingly passed down to my little sister and me, it was a legacy of strict adherence…black and white.
A message given in love…though one shadowed by fear.
What happened beyond those early and innocent years is a very long and complicated story so I will not bore you (or myself) by telling it. I will tell you that for me, the legacy unraveled a few years ago. I had thought the collage was about me looking in the same direction as my Father (which I did for many years). Now I see it was about the heart, for that is where the lessons really were…and all of the symbols and creatures that have appeared and re-appeared in my life were telling me so.
I truly did not understand the message until recently when I looked beneath the mask and into my own heart. Now I am beginning to understand the meaning of the butterfly, and of the struggle….before the flight.
I know to some of you this may seem ridiculous…but for me, understanding this collage was illuminating, like moonlight in a dark forest.
remnants of paper life…remnants of life.
I wish you love & peace.
until later…
Namaste’,
~gypsy-heart (aka suz)
