"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
"Imagine the Possibilities"
© 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
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