A Woman of Many Words

I’ve always loved words.  I suppose it was because I was surrounded by them at an early age.  Old and new books huddled together on the shelves in the living room, the colorful covers hugging so many magical words inside.  Scientific American, National Geographic, and Reader’s Digest lay scattered on the coffee table, poised to deliver a dose of words at a moment’s notice.  My mother’s handwriting filled pages of letters, lists and ledgers.  My father stored boxes and boxes of clippings, articles, and his own notes written in his distinctive hand.  More words, now audibly spoken, accented and flavored every meal, consumed more hungrily than the food.  Words ask questions, deliver information, announce decisions, and express wonder.  It is words that record, define, change, and inspire the world that they are loosened upon.

So, I am a word lover. I love to read words, write words, hear words, and think about words.  I even enjoy the visual beauty of letters clinging together in words.  It is not just what they say, but what they ARE in all their beauty, power, and potential.

I suppose that is why this mixed media piece, a Woman of Many Words, came to be.  I used Citra Solv concentrated cleaner to dissolve the ink on National Geographic pages.  I thought what emerged looked like trees.  Trees made of dissolved words.  Hmmm.  A world made of words, the perfect world for that woman like me, a woman of many words.  The background is made of dictionary pages, lightly painted over. The landscape is the work of more Citra Solv.  On top I painted a woman, clutching her words, lines from book pages.  One of them reads, “the perils of the literate” a subtle caution that there indeed lie dangers in this world of words.

This artwork was the Grand Prize winner in the CitraSolv “Inspire Your Heart with Art” Contest!  Visit the Citra Solv Artist’s Gallery to see more Citra Solv artwork.  http://www.citrasolv.com/art/artists.html

To order prints of this piece, visit my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/fromvictoryroad