Digital collage

Today I found myself working on a digital collage, which is something I haven't done in a long time (probably not since I stopped teaching Photoshop classes). I had an idea of what it was going to be about but realized at the end that it was something I hadn't planned.

My mother-in-law died on Saturday morning at the age of 86. She was the last of her eight siblings left alive after her older sister died two months ago. It's a sad time because Doris is gone but also because it signifies the end of an entire generation of that side of my husband's family.

The collage I made expresses the idea of releasing one's hold on life and moving away from the world, our friends and families, and our identities. As I was making the piece, I started thinking about the Passenger Pigeon and its extinction. I found a newspaper article written by James Audubon about the abundance of the bird. The text that is in the background is that newspaper article. I hadn't connected all these ideas to Doris until I finished the collage and was pondering it. Strange what your subconscious will express when you're not paying attention.

Freedom flight