Monotype Collage: Transformation 53

30 OCTOBER, 2018

New Monotype Collage

I've just completed a new monotype collage, number 53 in the long-ongoing Transformations series. If you've been a follower of my blog for a while, you're probably sick of reading the story of how this series got started years ago in an act of desperation. Likewise, you know that a monotype is a one-off print; details about that can be found in the 3rd section of this post. And, you no doubt know that I sent four of them up to Rubber City Prints in Akron, Ohio. Three of them sold there, and two sold at Ascension Fine Arts, so I had to scramble to make more. If you already know about all that, or don't care to, just skip the links to those posts.

Transformation 53 , monotype collage with mixed media,  7 x 7 inches

Changing

What does transformation really mean, and how does that relate to this monotype collage? Originally, I called the series 'Transformations" because the overlapping forms, when juxtaposed together, seemed to become more than just one thing.

In the process of changing from one thing into another, they were caught somewhere in between. This is the way of nature. Change happens slowly enough that we may see only some of the "in between" stages. Is a moth the same thing as the caterpillar it once was?

Transformation 14

Transformation 27

Roots becoming seeds, seeds becoming flowers, flowers becoming nebulae, nebulae becoming fetuses, fetuses becoming butterflies... It's so much easier to express the idea visually than to explain it in words. Transformation is how the universe works, including us.  It is taking place at every moment, to everything that exists.

Thoughts on Transformation

When I run out of words of my own, I find it's usually best to borrow them from someone else...

"We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law in nature."   ~Edmund Burke

"In Hinduism, Shiva is a deity who represents transformation. Through destruction and restoration, Shiva reminds us that endings are beginnings, and that our world is constantly undergoing a cycle of birth, death and rebirth."     ~Karen Salmansohn

CHANGE  by Kathleen Jessie Raine

Transformation 24

Change  Said the sun to the moon,  You cannot stay.

Change  Says the moon to the waters,  All is flowing. 

Change  Says the fields to the grass,  Seed-time and harvest,  Chaff and grain. 

You must change,

Said the worm to the bud,  Though not to a rose, 

Chrysalis I

Petals fade  That wings may rise  Borne on the wind. 

You are changing, said death to the maiden,

your wan face  To memory, to beauty. 

Are you ready to change?  Says the thought to the heart,

to let her pass  All your life long 

For the unknown, the unborn  In the alchemy  Of the world's dream?

You will change,  says the stars to the sun,  Says the night to the stars.

"It is almost banal to say so yet it needs to be stressed continually: all is creation, all is change, all is flux, all is metamorphosis."   ~Henry Miller

Follow this link to see a slideshow of the Transformation Series (at end of post).