Tuesday, June 7

Assemblage of Antiques, Ephemera and Found Objects: "It's All in the Detail"

Assemblage : "A Love Letter to Victor Hugo" © Mary Becker Weiss
"A Love Letter to Victor Hugo" 
© Mary Becker Weiss

"This montage was inspired by a passionate letter written in 1847 by a young French actress named Juliette Drouet to Victor Hugo, with whom she had a liaison for more than 50 years. 

In the beginning, I was furious with Juliette's acquiescing her life to Victor Hugo. I fought with the re-assemblage of the clock on canvas and it resisted me tooth and nail. Out of frustration, I put the project aside for weeks. 

Slowly I began to perceive Juliette's love of Victor Hugo not as a surrendering of her life to him, but on the contrary, her embracing something that was larger than either one of them. A receiving and giving of unconditional love, love that could not be measured or defined or predictable. I went back to the assemblage, now seeing it from a completely new perspective. 

I laid the structural panels aside, moved the hands away from the center (you have NO IDEA how difficult that was for me!) In other words, A Love Letter to Victor Hugo took on a life of its own ~ undefined, unconventional and completely vulnerable. A light bulb went off.

I have to say it was an artistic turning point for me. A Love Letter to Victor Hugo is an homage to Juliette Drouet, a metaphor for her willingness and ability to remain vulnerable for more than fifty years. A life lesson learned so many years later ~ that Juliette Drouet's surrender was not a measure of her weakness but rather a measure of her strength." ~ Mary Becker Weiss 2012


Assemblage :  "Imagine the Possibilities" © Mary Becker Weiss
"Imagine the Possibilities" 
© Mary Becker Weiss

Assemblage : "Undaunted" © Mary Becker Weiss
"Undaunted" 
Assemblage of Antiques, Ephemera and Found Objects
© Mary Becker Weiss

“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists. It is real. It is possible. It is yours.” ~ Ayn Rand


Testimonials:
MS from Maryland says: "Your assemblages are particularly strong. I love the detail and cleanness of the small pieces, intimately put together in Two Perspectives and One Vanishing Point. It is somehow very soothing." ~ MS

From a visitor in the Brunswick Outdoor Art Festival: "Your assemblages remind me of that Joseph Campbell guy (Cornell) ~ you know that hermit who lived in his mother's basement all his life."

R. M. from South Bristol said...
Mary, the lower portion of your "magic box" assemblage plunges my mind into the memories of travel all the way back to my days as a North Dakota farm boy who 1st opened the drawer (previously always locked) to my foster father's great old desk. In the drawer was stuff of "wonderment" for me. The top portion of the "magic box' sends my mind out over the travel memories that can never be forgotten. I hear train whistles and see images that only can be experienced 1st hand.

"Woman Soul Leadeth Us Upward and On." ~ Goethe

"Woman Soul" © Mary Becker Weiss
"Woman Soul" 
© Mary Becker Weiss

"All things transitory
          But as symbols are sent:        
        Earth’s insufficiency
          Here grows to Event:
        The Indescribable,
          Here it is done:
        The Woman Soul leadeth us        
          Upward and on!" ~ Goethe