May 7, 2021 / weavingschool

Recent Odyssey

Anastasia Azure, collage, collections, healthcare, inspiration collage, pandemic, paperweaving, recycledart, shifu, weaving, worrydolls

Here is the finished project that tells the rest of the story of my recent health care odyssey, despite not having anything wrong except 70+ years of wear and tear.

I was invited to participate in an Inspiration Collage project offered by the very talented weaving artist Anastasia Azure. She guided the participants through making a collage that would be the starting place for a future project. The previously posted shifu piece was the beginning place for my collection. I only used pictures and ephemera from years of keeping things that are “too good to throw away and will be just the thing for a project one of these days”. Years as an elementary school art teacher with little or no budget for supplies and a long time use of alternate materials destined for the global scrap heap left me with no lack of materials. Pandemic house cleaning unearthed long forgotten items.

Anastasia’s collage project asked us to reflect on several aspects of our work: design elements, emotional quality, narrative subject matter among others. I’ve never worked this way, and it was definitely an eye opener. As I manipulated the things on the collage, a solution and pathway appeared as if by magic. Each piece included tells a part of the story. The boat shuttle carries the viewer through the story just as it would carry yarn across the warp. It is balancing scientific research with the resulting medicines while the Guatemala worry dolls watch and worry. Clothing price tags ask the cost of the peace of mind that should come with a healthy outcome. Antique porcelain half dolls stand as observers, patients, health care workers. The crowded claustrophobic feeling of being trapped in the system is evident. There are many other symbols and metaphors. I ask you to find them and add your own interpretation.