Barbara F. Warden

"I began this series of large drawings at the start of 2017.  At that time, I was unaware that the concept of 'impermanence' is the essence of Buddhist philosophy.  I had been preoccupied with this concept for several years, and it took shape at first in my solo museum exhibition, '365:  Elements in Time' - at the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover, Delaware."

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"In addition to drawings, the new portfolio has a strong collage component.  It was not intentional.  I was reading T.S. Eliot’s poem 'The Wasteland' and was struck with one phrase he used – 'a heap of broken images.'  Those words formed a very graphic picture in my mind of upheaval, disruption, and damage.  In fact, I thought about the millions of people on the move today whose lives and communities have been broken apart.  The word collage has to do with glue and 'suggests structures that barely hang together and might easily become unstuck.' (Paul Muldoon,  Introduction to The Wasteland).  It was then that I started to rip up my drawings."

 

"The original drawing became the base for a strong and somewhat crude second layer - the collage - that consisted of other large drawings that I had torn into strips of various widths and lengths.  I made these strips into a woven pattern that I glued, stapled, or taped onto the first drawing, which remained intact and became the support for the woven paper.  If necessary, I would continue drawing onto this combined surface."  - B.W.

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