Mélange: a bunch of mixed media collages

a collection of memories, photos and feelings, over time

hi

this is an awkward place (the launch of a body of work) to start a blog, i know. but forgive me, i only ever write when the blue moon lets the light in, and the thoughts can find a way to escape. and such is now, in the middle of writing about a new collection of mixed media collages i've completed. time is the strangest thing, and luckily, these strange collages have done a marvelous job of capturing it, at least for me.

these collages were born between me leaving Cuba and the being back in Jamaica, and processing a lot of feelings i had from leaving Cuba and feelings i left back in Jamaica. it was like pulling the stuffing out of myself and being left with nothing but the will to put it down for myself to see, with today's eyes.

i've been waiting to release them i guess, like children you do not yet know if they can fly and the nest feels awfully high. there is so much faith in the creation of work, especially abstract work i think. and there are so many forms of abstraction. but the time has come, i surmise, or i tempt fate. nevertheless, a collection of digital collages enter the wild. Mélange, that's the title, you see how long i waited to say it, but it's free now, to be heard, seen, misread, understood, misinterpreted, looked at, real, alive. why mélange? because it means many things, ba dum tss. but really, it means a mixture of different things, and that's what these feelings, photos, memories, time and space, weeks, months have felt like. and you can see it, if you look. seriously, the collection is just below this. thank you.

so what’s all that really?

this body of work explores themes of change, movement and loss, over a span of time, where time is deconstructed and made non-linear. these were borne out of feelings of longing, missing, mourning and acceptance. i think of them as almost diary entries, each capturing something from the mélange of feelings I experienced. or somewhere there along the way. the pieces use a lot of objects, as abstract symbols throughout, referencing my sentimentality and personal meaning attached to each, and in a broader lens, exploring objects and our connections with them. the pieces follow no narrative story, instead an emotive one of sorts and are largely abstract, reinforcing the ideas of attached meaning as each viewer takes something different. for a closer look, my website is only a stroll over.

feel free to tell me what you’ve seen. until another moon, Ty.