Fictional Friends (with artist’s talk)

Sky Woman (acrylic on canvas)

Sky Woman (collage)

After moving from Virginia to Wilmington Delaware, my task was to settle into a different house and smaller studio. Unpacking seemed to take forever, so my cluttered “new” studio lay abandoned for a while. Finally, driven by pandemic quarantine, I pulled out a few collages already in progress and made myself stick to a 5 x 7 inch format until 20 faces materialized, each with its own characteristics and personality. These small “portrait” collages are made from paper and a variety of other materials. One downside of the process was that a ceiling leak dripped water directly on some of my working papers. The upside is that I decided to translate the images onto 8 x 10 inch canvases using acrylic paint. Working with small canvases reversed a long-time interest in much larger scale paintings exhibited in my recent 2018 Touchstone solo. Landscapes: The Terrain Within. https://www.touchstonegallery.com/rluckett-landscapestheterrainwithin/

Making each paper collage took three times longer to form than I expected. Making each painting also took at least three times longer than planned. But the joy of working with paint again outweighed time concerns. Some painted versions morphed into a completely different expressions from the collage counterpart. All are invented and diverse in nature. Many of them are whimsical. They became my friends during the pandemic when most venues in Wilmington were closed. I mentioned to a long-time friend, “I don’t know who these women are.” Without actually seeing them she suggested, “Maybe they are Everywoman.” So that is how I am seeing them for now. (It was her parting gift to me before she died. Thank you Margee Iddings.)
Look at the images in the composite portraits in the Artwork section of https://rosemaryluckett.com/composite-portraits/ rosealuckett@gmail.com
5 x 7 inch—@$100 shipping included
8 x 10 inch paintings–@$200, shipping included