A collage inspired by a poem

from Stray Birds

Stray birds of summer

come to my window

to sing and fly away.

And yellow leaves of autumn,

which have no songs,

flutter and fall there with a sigh.

 Rabindranath Tagore

(translated from Bengali to English)

This collage was produced in response to a call for artists to produce a piece of work related to a piece of literature. At the end of this month, I'll submit it for consideration to be included in a juried art exhibit. I'm not sure it's up to gallery standards, but I enjoyed making it.

It's too large to fit on my scanner, so I was forced to use my point-and-shoot camera to photograph it and I feel much has been lost in translation of the image. I was trying to express the relationship between the poet's worlds of summer and autumn, one a season of song, another a season of sighs. I was also interested in capturing the movement of time, the predicatability of the arrival of the seasons versus the sense of impermanence that comes with transitions (the stray birds that come and go, the leaves that fall and flutter away). There's a bit of "white magic" falling and moving through the painting like a sprinkling of Divine pixie dust. And my tree is rooted and yet floating in the composition. It's hard to see that in the photo,

Comments

[Kim Nelson]

I really like this collage, V. The color combination, textural elements and that fabulous tree trunk! You captured more than just Tagore's words here.

[furiousball]

great colors, beautiful words

[Shirl Grrrl]

Wow, I love it just in photo form.... would love to see it in person! I think it's just beautiful!

[Kelby]

Love this!

[Chris]

I love the tree, especially the roots. Beautiful.

[Dianne]

I love it! And I love your postcard art as well. Two years ago I began experimenting with visual journaling (no collage though). So I love when I come across inspirational sites such as yours. I'd love to start incorporating some art with my poetry.

Thanks for sharing your inspiration!

[V-Grrrl]

Hi Dianne,

Thanks for coming by! Good luck with your art adventures. : )