Leah Swenson

Collage on paper, encaustic medium, Polaroid instant photographs, and acrylic paint - all rendered in black and white.

 

In our own ways, we each rely on our loosely held together belief systems to navigate life, which at times can be extremely difficult to understand or reconcile. Individually, and collectively as global citizens, we try to make sense of what happens around us. It's my nature to cling to any type of familiar ritual when I feel powerless in chaotic times.

To me, creating images feels ritual, feels healing, feels powerful. To explore this emotional phenomenon, I drew on my own personal experiences of paradigm-shattering changes in worldview. To even begin to process and orient myself again, old systems must be stripped away in a return to basics.

For this work, I gave myself the parameter of monochrome, but let other aspects of the work play themselves out. When we perform our rituals, meaning emerges on its own.