There is always a psychological aspect to all that we are drawn to create. The beauty, power, familiarity and yet simplicity of these symbols have called to artists for generations and still do.
In series 3 I expanded my process by using new elements and new images. To the familiar process, described below, I added photos that I had taken of vintage maps and ephemera found in antique stores, weathered paper, paint and graffiti. The new images were dresses and shoes from store windows in Chicago, a coin operated child’s ride found the the Badlands of South Dakota, a Cow sign on a farm in Georgia and a horse on my neighbor’s property, just to name a few.
In creating my icon collages, I use images of signs, posters, and graffiti found in the numerous photographs I have taken. I experiment with many combinations, sometimes rejecting an entire image or using it as part of another collage. As few as three or as many as ten photographs might be used to compose one image, or small pieces of one photograph might be used multiple times. It is through this process that I marry my love of photography with other art forms, transforming photographic images into something complex, richly textured, and painterly.