Collage 277

These last 2 give a sense of how we work together. You can see that I used the same origami paper that Emma used in her last collage. And a regular staple of our artistic diet is definitely black. This would have been an entirely different project had it not been for Adrienne. She is our Johnny Cash, the man in black.

Yesterday Team Tolstoy worked together in the studio for the first time since before Thanksgiving. I was a little worried that we'd have a hard time getting re-energized, but after some settling into the studio again -- and a lot of cleaning and straightening -- we were off and running. Between Lynn, Emma, Lucy A and I, we made a whopping 17 collages, our record to date.

I also put aside 6 to send off to Otto in Berlin, and 1 for a new contributor, a fellow Grinnell College Russian Studies major, Christiane Johnson Carney. She sent us a package over the holidays with some real treasures -- letters written to her in French, Bible pages in Russian, old maps, Soviet-era stamps that we have yet to use -- they seem too precious! We are back in full force. -- Lola

Lola Baltzell
from page 561-562 of original text
collage, acrylic paint
made 10/22/10
page 445-447 of Pevear/Volokhonsky translation