Travel By Collage

Collage and acrylic on w/c paper, 10 X 11″

On the white beach, palm fronds waving, I wiggle my toes in the fine warm sand and know I am here.  Or am I in a dream from which i may awake and realize I’m lost, stranded, with nothing but relentless blue skies each day.  How many times would I paint these these palms until I could not any more?  How many baskets and skirts would I weave from the fronds and grasses before I started to long for machine made clothing.  How many months could I live in a grass hut, eating shell fish and fruit before I longed for art museums and restaurants with big city fare.  Is this really the paradise I long for?

Recently I received an “invitation” by mail from National Geographic Expeditions for a 3 week trip to India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives by private jet.  A bargain really, at $60,000 per person double occupancy plus your air fare to London.  Do you get things like this in the mail, brochures which fuel the fire of longing to travel to exotic places?

Well, not being at a point in my life when I can do such trips even if I could afford them, I have discovered a (somewhat) satisfying way to enjoy the prospects of travel by collage.  That’s not a typo for college.  I mean collage, glueing a picture onto the page as if it were a photo taken on your recent trip There, and then painting out from the picture.  Travel by collage.  This one just saved me $60,000, not to mention all the shots and malaria pills, flight arrangements, wardrobe shopping, etc I would need to go there.  Not a bad deal I must say.