IsabeauxStudio

The roots of this piece came from a visit to New York by my father on my 31st birthday.  We went and did all the things I had not yet done in my 9 years of living in Manhattan- some of which included a ferry ride,  trip to Ellis Island, and a trip to ground zero per request of my father.

I remember 9/11, just like everyone else, it was a beautifully crisp clear day with not a cloud in sight.  Just as clearly, I remember the aftermath with the smell of burnt plastic in the air and the missing persons posters over every inch of free wall and bus shelter space in Manhattan.  I remember the huge pile of debris at ground zero which just seemed impossibly big and surreal.  It was gone by the time my dad and I went to visit.  

Here are some of the photos that I took that day, which became the part of my collage.

Besides bits and pieces of the photos above,  I added stripes from the flag, and a "cloudscape."  The placement of this cloudscape in the collage makes it look like smoke.  You can see the texture of the chain link fence from the photos above, and a mass of chain links.  I like the heaviness of the metal in the piece and l like the fact that it was layered on top of everything.  I added these elements because that is what the collage felt like it needed.   However when I look back the end result seems like I am trying to make this big huge political statement.  I wasn't,  I was just following where the collage took me.

Here is the piece on 6/12/2006 with the first bits of color added.

Here is the piece further along, dated 7/5/2006 

    
Here is the final piece.  Overall I like the initial collage, but as the final result, it is my least favorite from the series.  I don't like the way it was rendered.  Again, I don't like the texture of the paper showing through.  There are "high spots" that I didn't cover over enough and you see the white of the paper showing through.  It really annoys me. 

I also am bothered because I feel people will think I have jumped on the 9/11 bandwagon so to speak.  As an "artist" I shouldn't care what other people think, but I am less than perfect, I definitely do care.