Artist Statement: For me, collage is an ecosystem of archetypes, symbols, and synchronicities: an [im]possibility space where flora, fauna, creatures, and ideas that have no earthly business with each other can interact and make something new. Within this remixed world, the frisson between elements that don’t belong to each other frees insights ungoverned by the conscious mind. If viewed from a particular vantage point, the surreal reveals hidden truths.
The first piece—a mixed media collage and a collage/erasure made from song lyrics by Aimee Mann (“This is How It Goes”)— records the ups and downs of 2022: a reckoning with the ghosts of old relationships, a contemplation of anxiety, and a glimpse of hope, humor, and awe.
Gabriela Denise Frank is a transdisciplinary storyteller, editor, and educator whose work expands from the page into the sonic, the visual, and the experiential. Her writing and visual art have appeared in True Story, BOMB Magazine, DIAGRAM, Northwest Review, Bayou, New Delta Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. The author of Pity She Didn’t Stay ’Til the End (Bottlecap Press), she serves as creative nonfiction editor and managing editor of Crab Creek Review. www.gabrieladenisefrank.com