Assemblage IV
Silent Messengers: Assemblage IV
Collagraph on paper and archival inkjet on mylar layer
(Layers attached together at top edge)
A unique assembled print
34 x 25.5 cm.
April 18, 2007 in Printworks, Silent Messengers by Marja-Leena
by Marja-Leena
Long overdue comments, Marja-Leena: wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!
This work is stunning and it seems to indicate a lot of movement ML. When you do this type of artwork, have you ever turned it upside down and how do you determine what colors to use? You surely stir my emotions as there’s so many highlights to view + talent plus imagination!!
Gosh, I really like this one. Don’t know why, but I also find it a little frightening.
Peter, Roger, Mr. Zip – thank you so much! You have made me feel better about this piece, which I almost did not post because the photo isn’t accurate enough. The colours aren’t quite true and I wasn’t sure if the image was “readable” to viewers. Somehow the colour corrections would not work for me – the blue would become too harsh, for example. Ah well, it’s going to look different on every monitor, I have to remind myself. You really have to see the real thing.
Roger, with this series of assembled layers, I did play around with everything upside down and every which way. I used pieces of proofs that had already been printed earlier, so I chose the layers that looked best together. Rather fun!
Mr. Zip – frightening? I don’t feel them to be so, or intend them to be.. hmm… I seem to remember that you said that about some other piece of mine once before. I can’t imagine why, unless cave art figures are part of your nightmares, or remind you of something else scary. Interesting, isn’t it, how each person reacts so differently?
What I see in this is a huge looming head with indefinable but unfriendly features. Maybe I have an overactive imagination, or I just live in a constant state of anxiety.
Lovely blue! This one seems like it could be nautical – a mast on the rushing sea. There is a kind of ghostly face in the middle – maybe that’s what scared Mr. Zip?
This one is a slow burner for me, not one to hit me between the eyes. It’s like landscape photographs which don’t have the immediate WOW factor, but better than that, entice over time, pulling you in to look, look, relax, wonder, think, and always look again. And I suspect we are missing a lot in this reproduction.
I’m going to get into a lot of trouble here. Love the blue, but the brown is a little excremental in tone and dispersion.
Do you still love me?
Mr. Zip and Leslee – yes, there’s a figure there, somewhat fish-like to me, and based on an actual rock art figure from the Karelia region, I think it was.
Olga, I still have mixed feelings about the success of this piece yet there’s something there that made me keep it. I appreciate your giving it a deeper look!
Anna – I knew it! The colours look drab in this reproduction compared to the original. You do have a way with words, Anna, and I forgive you 🙂 Maybe I better have another try at colour correcting this, or take a new photo – sigh.
The colors look fine in my monitor (which I believe to be correctly tuned). In fact, I like them a lot.
Dave, thanks! I did try adjusting this again and it’s a wee bit darker than what I posted before. I’m thinking it must the particular cobalt blue with touches of rust that won’t translate well in the digital, and looks drab when it’s compressed for the web. Probably my own lack of skill in the finer points of PhotoShop.
A cave hovers midair,
Slit by walls of sky.
Bill – how wonderful! Thank you.