I think about why I love working with these tiny scraps of paper, so fragile and disconnected, and I have my reasons, I think.  Life feels this way to me sometimes: so fragile and disconnected.  All the roles we have to play, the work commitments to fulfill, the life-changing events, families to tend to, children to raise, running here and there.  Like tiny scraps of paper, it can all seem so disconnected; like we’re chasing something, but maybe not quite sure what it is.    

But if we can manage to stand back once in awhile and see the whole—the many layers and pieces of our lives contribute to this overall, luminous effect.  If we’re lucky, then ever so often we get this altitude and we see for a moment that these seemingly fragile and disconnected pieces are actually all connected, layering one upon another in a beautiful and orderly composition.

Now in my later 50s, I feel the need to synthesize these roles and pieces of my life, making room for all of the feelings and contradictions, the heartbreaks and joys, to become whole. Working with collage teaches me to do this. It teaches me that each piece contributes to the whole, and in the big picture, nothing is disconnected, but rather intricately woven.  And it’s beautiful.