Red Birch, 22” x 29.5”, drawing and mixed media collage on watercolor paper

As a medium, collages are defined by the idea of fragmentation -- disparate elements pasted together to form a new whole. In her latest series, Collage, Audrey Anastasi uses this idea to convey the complexity of our inner lives -- that we are not one thing, even to ourselves.

Compositionally, each piece contains two fundamental elements -- a woman, drawn in charcoal, usually in the center of the frame, and bits of media pasted in front of, behind, and around each subject. The women assume a variety of poses -- some are vulnerable, shoulders open, glaring at the viewer; others are guarded, arms crossed, contorting their body to the side; many are lost in thought, staring off into some unknown distance, seemingly unaware of our gaze.

No matter their disposition, though, the women of Collage all appear deep in introspection, and we see them as if we are walking in on them in private moments. They are not just in their own heads, but in the closets, attics, and hiding places of their minds, alternatively focused and wistful in their contemplation.

The other media -- bits of writing, scraps from magazines, fragments of other paintings -- give us clues as to what might be giving them pause, or at least the shape it is taking. Indeed, the most recurring image of the series is that of a map, usually serving as the background to the subjects -- taken together, the images that populate their surroundings function as a kind of map of their inner life.

In “Red Birch,” birch trees -- a previous series of Anastasi’s and another theme that repeats in this one -- create a thicket in front of a woman’s pensive face, as other bits of filigree flicker on the other side, creating a sort of visual static. Toned in sepia like an old, old photograph, the work has the feeling of revisiting an old memory that’s been obfuscated by the passing of time.

Eyelids droopy with reverie, the woman at the center of “Cowgirl” leans her head down towards a hillside pine forest traversed by two horses, as if she’s listening to the sounds of her own projection, perhaps of where she’d rather be. We get the sense we are glimpsing into her own imagination -- a mind-made diorama.

Bright stars and neon galaxies swirl around a seated woman in “Celestial Night,” seeping into parts of her arm, head, and chest. But her body also displays a much more local map -- the New York City subway system, with its own colored lines traversing her body like veins. Space, quite literally, is collapsed in her being. She is here and everywhere at the same time. Aren’t we all.

Giancarlo T. Roma
 

Touch, 28.5” x 22”, drawing and mixed media collage on watercolor paper

American Jazz, 25” x 19’, drawing and mixed media collage on Strathmore paper

Miami Night, 11” x 14”, drawing and mixed media collage on museum board

Green Forest, 29.5” x 22”, drawing and mixed media collage on watercolor paper

Vuillard Woman, 22” x 29”, drawing and mixed media collage on watercolor paper

Easter Flowers, 22” x 29”, drawing and mixed media collage on watercolor paper

The End of Night, 30” x 24”, oil paint and mixed media collage on sintra boad
Collection of Panni Gergely and Ed McGowan

Ancestry, 30” x 22”, drawing and mixed media collage on watercolor paper

Red Blindfold, 30” x 22”, drawing and mixed media collage on watercolor paper

Middlesex/Union, 30” x 22”, drawing and mixed media collage on watercolor paper

Blessings, 30” x 22”, drawing and mixed media collage on watercolor paper

Persian Forest, 30” x 22”, drawing and mixed media collage on watercolor paper

True North, 30” x 22”, drawing and mixed media collage with fabric on watercolor paper

Coalescence, 29” x 22”, drawing and mixed media collage on watercolor paper

Celestial Night, 29” x 22”, drawing and mixed media collage on watercolor paper

Aquatic Figure, 30” x 22”, drawing and mixed media collage on watercolor paper

Nine-O-One, 25” x 19”, drawing and mixed media collage on Strathmore paper

This Week, 29.5” x 22”, drawing and mixed media collage on watercolor paper

Brindle, 24” x 12”, oil and mixed media collage on Sintra board

Cowgirl, 10” x 8”, drawing and mixed media collage on museum board
Collection, Darryl Hollon

Renaissance Woman, 15” x 12”, drawing and mixed media collage on museum board
Private Collection

Cold View, 19” x 12”, drawing and mixed media collage on museum board

Song, 18” x 12”, drawing and mixed media collage on museum board
Private Collection

At work

About the works:

These collages were created first in the presence of a live model, working quickly, in charcoal and pastel, and again, later, alone in the studio, furiously tearing and pasting images from magazines, various language newspapers, print publications, and previous drawings. In this way, both in theme and technique, I am working with the intersection of disciplined control and randomized instinct.  Observational drawing coexists with a myriad of selected patterns, colors, and images from media, assembled and pasted down like broad swaths of paint.  Fifteen works from this series premiered at Welancora Gallery in Brooklyn, NY on May 11, 2019 in a solo exhibition entitled, "EnSamblage", an invented word referring to both a musical ensemble of parts, and a visual assemblage of elements. 

As a feminist artist, my first commitment is to painting other women, the human face, and figure. Whether working with figurative descriptions or with the abstract use of materials, I approach all my subjects directly and with abandon.  Additionally, in my quest to discover and reveal what is most essential, the drawing aspect of these images is created with my non-dominant left hand.

Audrey Anastasi

 

Below is a transitional series called PAPER DOLLS, a reference to childhood activities and the early formation of identity for many women. Embellishing the figure, originally drawn from the nude, in the completed work, the body has becomes "dressed." The clothing makes a statement about the female subject, expressing either the true self or an alter ego, modesty or seduction, fashionability or practicality.  The process involves an interactive start, working from life, and then the solitary process of collaging, drawing, painting, or sewing to create a person covered and acceptable to enter the public milieu.