Photo Collages
Playing with photography and mixed media! I love photography, but I also love playing with my watercolors, acrylics, and inks. Before I took my first photography class, I was looking into a general fine arts degree to explore the ideas of a multifaceted practice. However, collage is relatively new to me. It was a little uncomfortable to think about the process of cutting up some of my photographs. Some of which I spent many hours on editing in Photoshop. I will say, the results have been really unexpected and a lot of fun.
Salmon Scales
While attending my first session of graduate school, I was thinking about the concepts of my work and how they tend to revolve around themes of dichotomy. I had just completed a solo exhibition with an artist talk on Roots: A Photographic Journey for my undergrad- an ongoing photo series about discovering my identity here in the Pacific Northwest. The series is constantly addressing change and the dichotomy in the relationships we have with land and others. Throughout the series, I’m considering life and death, death and rebirth, darkness and light, movement and rest, going within and expansion, and being white and being Indigenous.
At a guest artist lecture by the fabulous Diedrick Brackens, I became inspired by one of his tapestries showcasing a catfish. I thought of the salmon, and it’s importance to my tribe’s culture. I instantly knew I wanted to create something to represent the salmon. I deliberated on how to construct something with photography for the salmon and how I could still integrate the ideas and themes of dichotomy and transformation into the work. That was when I thought about experimenting with collage and embracing the ideas of destruction and creation.
River Wisdom
This photo was originally part of the series Roots: A Photographic Journey. The photograph has been hand cut and layered on rice paper that I watercolored. I then wrote the Twulshootseed word for ‘water’ in archival white ink. The image is attached to a 10” wooden panel.
Uprooted
The upper shapes are photographs of wood that I hand cut to resemble cottonwood buds in the winter time. I found this uprooted tree on a winter’s walk near my home. The watercolor circles are cut from an abstract piece I created in graduate school. They are all attached to a 10” x 15” piece of rice paper.
Be Kind, Be Helpful, Be Sharing
This piece includes parts of another image from Roots: A Photographic Journey: ‘Bracken.’ The darker orange pieces are peels of madrone bark that I collected in my backyard. They have all been attached to a 10” x 14” wooden panel. Along the collage pieces in archival ivory paint, I’ve written the Twulshootseed sayings for “Be Kind. Be Helpful. Be Sharing.”
This piece was created using parts of ‘Sappy Tears’ from Roots: A Photographic Journey, abstract watercolor shapes, and archival ink on 12” x 36” black archival foam core. The handwritten poem is about a walk in the woods near Mount Tacobet. While there, I thought of my Indigenous ancestors (my grandmother in particular) and their encouragement to keep learning about my heritage.
Sappy Tears
Guided by the ancient wisdom of the trees,
I wonder further into the dappled light.
The scent of tobacco fills the air,
Invading my nostrils.
She is here. I’m not alone.
I feel comforted.
Her presence is like
A warm blanket on a cold day.
“Keep going,” she whispers.
The deeper I go, the darker it gets.
But, I don’t feel scared.
I walk the path my ancestors carved,
As the dance in the sky amongst the stars.
“Remember,” she whispers.
So I let my toes sink into the soil.
This place is sacred.
She whispers once more,
“So are you.”
A smile spreads across my face,
And a tear slides down my cheek -
Like sap on an alder tree.