Collage Series Favorites “Between the Lines”
gallery | 23 images — spontaneous sayings of seeking and finding
These collages are viewer-chosen favorites from an exhibit in 2000 at The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now Sofia University) in Palo Alto, CA. The full series of 72 collages was created mostly in 1998. Read my artist statement and other notes below.
These collages are not in order of popularity, but have been arranged to roughly follow a storyline — from the initial dreaming of a search to the vast silence at its end.
About These Collages
I have experienced every collage in this exhibit as a message to myself. Making each of them was like unfolding a mystery or assembling a pile of multiple jigsaw puzzles’ pieces without knowing what the final pictures were supposed to be. None were planned.
When I start a collage first thing I do is gather the pieces—by looking through magazines and cutting out words and images that spark my heart’s interest. Next, I look at the images I've chosen and see how they fit together. Then I work with the words until a caption emerges to reveal the meaning of the images.
The final product always comes as a surprise to me, and brings with it a fresh insight. Indeed, the mystery has not been solved until that moment of “Ah ha!” (or “Ha ha!” or simply “Ahhh”). Some of these collages came together quickly while others went through a number of transformations before the final stamp of internal satisfaction.
Many of these collages contain statements that can be immediately interpreted in some way (as true, or inspirational, or funny; or not true, etc.). Others are more cryptic. In either case, I believe they have their greatest value as food for thought, or pieces to consider over time with an open mind and heart. May they serve as mirrors of the unfolding mystery within you.
~ Maja Apolonia Rodé, 2000
Further Reflections, 2021-2025:
Looking back on these collages more than 20 years later, emergent is the word I would use to describe the creative process from which they were produced. But “emergent” wasn’t in the foreground of my vocabulary back then.
I made these in 1998, long before internet memes or the popularization of fun sentiments arranged with cut-out words. My method of creating these collages was also emergent, and evolved for about a year before this particular series started coming through.
It has been interesting to see similar types of word cut-outs designs over the years with wonderfully clever and creative messages. The difference here is that I did not pre-write the text. The authorship and design were intimately intertwined. I sometimes spent hours piecing together a message from a limited set of words, without knowing what insight was hidden among them. I was determined to reach that “the ring of truth.” The potential reward of this often painstaking, unpremeditated way was truly fresh insight and/or way of expressing what is beyond words.
That particular quality of freshness just isn’t possible when we rely solely on what is already familiar — familiar word combinations or ways of thinking, our own or others’ — as refined and open as they may be.
This is the power of an oracle — whether or not we believe its messages are divinely given, the oracle get us thinking outside the box of our minds. And that itself is its own kind of magic. In this way, I see this collage method as part of the lineage that led up to Divine Dice — my “inner wisdom oracle” that emerged during the 2020 pandemic lockdown. More on that soon!
Reflections from the Field
“These collages are so deep, each one of them needs a week each to ponder! I love the playful pun of the Kodo drummer, that made me smile!”
“Oh my! These are a wonderful feast for heart mind & eye 😊 I adore the All of time one with the ammonite. I’m going to meditate on that!”
"These are seriously helpful.”
"‘What's been happening since you felt the Big Bang’" I love this. And "all of time just circles the heart of now". So powerful. I noticed deep spaciousness arising for me in the brief moments I shared with your images. Thank you. I am also deeply appreciative of your ways...and what you are pointing to, and inviting us in...”
“Seriously though... fun is no joke man... :-D”
“I adore these, they are playful poetic inquiries and hints at what makes a meaningful life. They shift perspective and place ourselves in the middle (or at least with a lovely view) of the great mystery and ask us to connect with the transcendent now and always. They make me want to create more of them. They feel therapeutic and fun. My father worked with collage a lot, so these have a home feel to them as well.”
❤ 2020 | Maja Apolonia Rodé
You may also enjoy . . .
Tags
1MBC-004
275 words | 3 min. audio — on the call of your creative flow