Divine Alchemy is a self-portrait inspired by the idea of transformation and personal change. The figure and butterfly are a photo transfer on a vintage paper collage with paint. The piece is finished with a skim coat of resin and a matte varnish that gives the piece an encaustic feel.
The desire to understand myself more as a creative person has yielded a body of work that represents a precarious artistic and emotional journey into an uncharted chapter of my life. These challenges and insights are expressed through a combination of self-portraits, paper ephemera collage, and familiar universal symbols intended to present the viewer with a multi-dimensional and expansive view of my personal mythology.
The basis of my mixed media collages are blue prints, road maps, bus tickets, letters of correspondence and various other items of paper ephemera which invoke the nostalgia of a Midwestern upbringing and the roots of my artistic cultivation. Inspiration is derived from the inherent meaning in these documents as well as the images they are paired with. These vintage sales slips, receipts, invoices, etc. serve as a reminder of the importance of paper as a record of human history, but also the fleetingness of a life reduced to ephemeral moments.