Collage 77

Lucy Arrington
from page 161-162 of original text
collage, acrylic paint
made 4/18/10

One aspect of the project that fascinates me is the connection to the text. I feel very strongly that somehow each image needs to be informed by the words on the page.

As Lulu put it in an earlier post:
"I mean, we’re using W&P, pages with Tolstoy’s words on them, but….why? just because it’s there? Could we just as well be using any other text, Ladie’s Home Journal, Jane Eyre, etc.?"

I don't mean that the images need to slavishly or literally reflect the words on that particular page, but that with each image we need to respect Tolstoy and his accomplishment if the project is to have any real meaning.

In one conversation with Lola, I went so far as to say that to use the physical pages of W&P without some connection to the text seemed trivializing, cynical, destructive, and nihilistic. By destroying an unquestionably rich, classic narrative text to use the pages for our own version of artistic expression could be seen as sinfully self-centered and insensitive. Do I really feel this way? I don't know...

BUT I do know that this is one reason I find the project so fascinating. The struggle to make connections, find meanings, and ultimately to create something of value.

And how does my image reflect the text? In a very trivial, literal way that I leave to the reader-viewer to figure out... or not...
- Lucy A