Collage 243

People often ask if we follow the story line as we make the collages. At the beginning I never referenced the story, but do so intermittently, depending on how engaged I am with the story. There have been times when I've put the book down this year, to read something else. Recently I'm reading again and am really into it. In any case, when I made this collage, I did not look at the text to see what was going on.

Lo and behold, on this page (Volume II, Part Two, Chapter XIII), Prince Andrei and Pierre arrive at Bald Hills and encounter Andrei's sister Marya with her "people of God". She is extremely religious and one of her few pleasures in life, aside from caring for her motherless nephew, is her religion. We are introduced here to her "people of God", who are wandering saints (Marya's view) or trickster's (Andrei's view).

One of the wanders, Pelageyushka, describes a great blessing that was revealed in Kolyazin, a miracle-working icon. "There was radiance on her face, like a heavenly light, and it dripped from the holy Mother's cheek, just dripped and dripped...". Coincidentally, I used the image of the Mother Mary and baby Jesus in this piece. Really, it was unintentional. What to make of that? -- Lola

Lola Baltzell
from page 493-494 of original text
collage, acrylic paint, ink
made 10/1/10
page 390-392 of Pevear/Volokhonsky translation