Words I Have Grown Up With by Suzanne McLeod - art show here at the studio
Sunday, March 28, 2010
The March 28th opening reception of this exhibition generated many thoughtful comments of ways in which people now feel inspired to create their own artwork and reflect upon these topics. Below is the artist's description of this installation:
Words I Have Grown Up With: Five Collage Contemplations by Suzanne McLeod
Excavating hundreds of drawings and letters saved for 50 years, I consider the words, images, and messages from a lifetime of work on paper. Are these meant to be preserved, conveyed, or perhaps allowed to crumble? We inherit qualities and things from our pasts – sometimes with grateful appreciation, sometimes with a sense of burden and obligation.
In my case, many suitcases filled with my earliest creations: every first grade penmanship exercise, every card, note, scribble, each with the date penciled in the corner in my mother's hand. The seeds of my creative callings were watered by her careful attention through the years. But what to do now with all these suitcases of paper?! Is every one meant to be saved as my mother saved them, under the basement stairs? Being an artist, I chose to sift through them, to smell the musty old paper smells, to pan for any gold there might be, to let memories be sparked, and to see what new forms these old works might take with the addition of glue, needle and thread, scissors. These five pieces are the first results.
A Box Full of Love
Penmanship
Face Too Fat (I Wanted to Die)
From Fear to Here
Shouldn't You Be Doing Something Else?
Suzanne McLeod is an artist and Expressive Therapist living in Arlington, Ma. She is Clinical Supervisor at the Arbour Counseling Programs Partial Hospitalization Program in Woburn, Ma.
