Years ago, before I went back to school for graphic design, someone saw creativity in me and pointed it out. In doing so, they changed the course of my life and career. Once I found my way to design school I found my passion for making things and communicating visually. Graphic design is communicating a very specific message, on behalf of a client to a targeted audience, and I love the challenge of problem solving that it brings. In all of that, I never thought of myself as an artist. To me, an artist is someone who makes art for its own sake, for their own sake and that is so very different from design. Only recently have I found my own rhythm as an artist in creating collages and mixed media pieces.
Through many moves and over many years I have carried with me this large vintage suitcase filled with magazine covers (yes, only the covers) that were saved by my great-great-uncle, himself a commercial artist, back in the 1930s. After my grandfather passed, this stack of ephemera came to me. It is amazing that my family kept them; it is amazing that I kept them. I never knew what to do with them, until now. Repurposing these remnants from my familial past seems like it was meant to be. I enjoy making them, and while that is what matters most to me, perhaps others will enjoy them too.
