Creating the Collection: Queen of Hearts Collage Busts

After a busy January filled with commissions and two (sold out!) collections for the Spotlight on Art artist market in Atlanta, GA, I needed to switch gears. Collage is tedious work, but it was the palette cleanser I gravitated towards. When the muse calls, I try not to argue.

So I pulled out my scrap collections and started digging. Wallpaper samples, fabric swatches and paper of every weight spilled out onto my desk along with a few rogue playing cards. They were part of a larger haul long preserved in my parents' basement. A stockpile from my dad's low-stakes, Monday night poker game, which had run for some forty plus years. My son used them to construct sprawling houses across the carpet. I grabbed a few queens to make art. 

I experimented with them a couple times, looking for a way to riff on the iconic Queen of Hearts—a strong, bold, romantic, emotional figure that, to me, symbolized power and femininity. I created a few collages, but the art wasn’t art-ing and eventually I set them aside. This year, however, something clicked: perfectly imperfect heart-shaped busts, peppered with playing cards.

My dad would have been 72nd this month. And I didn't realize until after I'd extracted and glued down the last little heart how lovely it was to know he'd passed these cards around with his friends. Maybe held them in a winning hand. That somehow he worked his way into a collection all about love.