https://www.iamgatheringwords.com/new-cover-page daily 1.0 2023-09-20 https://www.iamgatheringwords.com/work2018 daily 0.75 2024-05-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1521761648016-EVMD1ZOALWEBQGRCQIHH/IMG_3815.jpg Work - 2018 "The Waiting Room" (2018) (mixed media: photographs, eucalyptus stems, newspaper) it's grey. i'm immobile. am i bored? depressed? so much life and color around me but it feels unreachable. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1627601121356-UKQUF0S8YP7WMTPX921S/IMG_4139.jpg Work - 2018 - Make it stand out "Here I Am (The Only Living Boy in New York)" (2018) (mixed media: album covers, photographs crepe paper, ephemera, glue figure). i am the happiest when i hear the soaring voices of Paul Simon & Art Garfunkel in The Only Living Boy in New York...."ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh--heeeerrre I ammmmmmmmm". this is the song and the part of the song i hear in my head every single time i see the approaching skyline of and then my feet hit the streets of new york...it's a major synesthetic experience for me. can you find me in this picture? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1521760683642-DUZKLGAYCHPNN1DJYE3X/IMG_3809.jpg Work - 2018 “Sisyphus" (2018) (mixed media: LP covers, newspaper, melted crayon, acrylic paint) Holy shit 2017 and 2018 have been bearing down hard on all of us. We push on. We breathe. There is gold in the sky. There is hope. This was my very first piece—where I learned how much I wanted to say and how much the tactile work filled my soul. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1521762552990-6JWAVDH2TZO5BYZZONF0/IMG_3783.jpg Work - 2018 "The Wheel of Fortune (Tarot #10)" (2018) (mixed media: dried flowers, photographs, ephemera, acrylic paint) "The wheel is turning and you can't slow down, You can't let go and you can't hold on, You can't go back and you can't stand still" Amen, Jerry. Amen. we are turning. spring, winter, fall, summer. we grasp. we push away. the wheel keeps turning. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1627601385915-YVULZDH6WFD3K16ZLZN4/IMG_4232.JPG Work - 2018 - Make it stand out "Tea and Oranges - Newport, Rhode Island (monochrome version)" (2018) (mixed media: LP covers, photographs, specialty paper, silver foil, acrylic paint) Melquiades' point where present, past and future collapse into...nothingness? nirvana? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1521761201504-YZS3LWSVY5MHPJOH1EBL/IMG_3810.jpg Work - 2018 "The Labyrinth" (2018) (mixed media: twine, photographs, floral wire, melted crayon, beads words by neko case, roland orzabal, sia, adrienne rich, joni mitchell, and GROVER) oh boy. we hide from and battle the monster in the labyrinth all of our lives, no? it's madness. it's ruthless. we dart and we dash and we hide and try and outsmart. what if the monster in the labyrinth is us? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1521765247482-E4CNWUYSLTVB24VQYKTV/IMG_3814.jpg Work - 2018 "Prometheus" (2018) (mixed media: magazines, LP cover, acrylic paint) Prometheus brought fire to humans in a fennel stalk because he pitied their lack of warmth and light. I imagine Prometheus in 2018 as a woman...we need to follow her fire, her warmth, her light. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1627601279419-6JF2XAD5LPDI9XQB5T7E/IMG_4230.JPG Work - 2018 - Make it stand out "Tea and Oranges - Newport, Rhode Island (color)" (2018) (mixed media: LP covers, photographs, specialty paper, gold foil, acrylic paint) Melquiades' point where present, past and future collapse into...nothingness? nirvana? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1521761953764-9J7B0LCUXB1LEAWHBQ42/IMG_3806.JPG Work - 2018 "Sirens' Murmurations" (2018) (mixed media: tree bark, LP covers, cardstock, sharpie & pencil, acrylic paint, words by bell hooks, audre lorde, ursula leguin, adrienne rich, margaret atwood, isadora duncan, patti smith, anne lamott, catherine of siena, coco chanel, patty griffin, dinah craik, zinnia jones, the sibylline oracles, eleanor roosevelt, anna quindlen, mary shelley, dorothy l. sayers, amelia atwater-rhodes, george eliot, anais nin, and rupi kaur) Inspired by the new translation of The Odyssey by Emily Wilson, who retranslated the work from the original Greek. Interestingly, what she discovered was this--no mention of flowing hair or lips or sexy temptresses. "The seduction they offer is cognitive: they claim to know everything about the war in Troy, and everything on earth. They tell the names of pain." "Now stop your ship and listen to our voices. All those who pass this way hear honeyed song poured from our mouths. The music brings them joy, and they go on their way with greater knowledge." https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1627601626293-T2I86JQ53LI3XTQN1TPM/IMG_4680.jpg Work - 2018 - Make it stand out "Here Comes the Sun" (2018) Mixed Media (photographs, gold leaf, metal fabric) I made this for one of my most favorite people on the planet--someone who brings fire and passion and commitment and kindness and justice and compassion to everything she does. The decoupage is mostly comprised of two things I ran into randomly and could not get over their beauty--a patina-ed fountain and a cart filled with sun-dappled orange (my favorite) roses. And i say, it's alright.... https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1521760355136-HM0FLW4VOAPB6J2WIJY1/IMG_3799.jpg Work - 2018 "Swallowed by a Song (Jonah)" (2018) (mixed media) For my mom, who had a print of Jonah (whose story she loves) for as long as I can remember. The print was lost when her house burned down four years ago. It didn't look like this, so it's definitely my own reimagining. I like that he's snuggled in the confines of beauty (song, soft flowers) and seems at peace and accepting of his circumstances and where it will lead. Props, of course, to Paul Simon for this lyric and its imagery that's stuck with me for so long. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1521765179655-UNG0J5BUI2PSA765HS5E/IMG_3808.jpg Work - 2018 "Pandora's Box" (2018) (mixed media: tulle, LP covers, melted crayons, newspaper, magazines, acrylic paint) What have we unleashed? Remember, at the bottom of Pandora's box, there was hope..... https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1627847594573-3W5A0RZIO8DN0F3L0M9E/IMG_4139.jpg Work - 2018 https://www.iamgatheringwords.com/contact daily 0.75 2024-03-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1631209900088-1YAW90P3HLTZHKIE0JO8/IMG_9424.JPG About the Artist https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/21efadff-744b-491e-85dc-e83c354d3040/qrcode_account.venmo.com.jpg About the Artist - Make it stand out Venmo for @iamgatheringwords https://www.iamgatheringwords.com/work2019 daily 0.75 2024-05-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1556237192791-I0FZEY6AUP1H0803OVVT/IMG_5752.jpg Work - 2019 “Sight” (2019) (mixed media papier mache, glitter, tarot cards, fortune cookie fortunes, photographic prints (from my photos), ashes, embroidery thread, gold leaf what do you use to see? what guides you? what chases you? what grounds you? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1551910394086-ZAQ8BNW009PPJEUUE9R8/IMG_5558.jpg Work - 2019 “State of the Union (Brett kavanaugh’s face)” (2019) (mixed media…LP covers, Amnesty International Declaration of Human Rights, bible verses, birth control pill documentation, photocopies of photos (my own)) I can never unsee that face. Splashed across every television throughout the hospital as I’m pacing while my dad recovers from open heart surgery. Pacing to avoid the inevitable, daily sundown of my dad. Pacing to escape from the palpable agony of the family in the waiting room whose young family member has had an unexpected stroke. Pacing to escape pain and to discharge nervous energy and greeted by a face that seems all too unpleasantly familiar. Knowing how the man with that face will wield his power. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1567291622282-KC54RO2SSRFGNBKJLCVW/IMG_6201.jpg Work - 2019 “Medusa (Anger is a Gift")” (2019) (mixed media. photographs (mine). court and spark. raffia) women hold anger and channel it to get shit done. https://www.iamgatheringwords.com/work2021 daily 0.75 2024-05-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1634730256994-IWB1NO3CDXKCW1FU5HB8/IMG_0003.JPG Work - 2021 - Make it stand out “The Oak in Fraser” - 2021 (Mixed media: acrylic, stamps, photos (mine), books, paper, shopping bag, verse (mine)) Dappled forest. Me and you. Seeing stars in the early morning. “feelin’ lovely, livin’ lovely, just love me. I wanna be with you, ayyy (just love me) I wanna be with (just love me, love me), I wanna be with you, ayyy (love me), I wanna be with I wanna be with you (love me, just love me)” - “Love.” Kendrick Lamar “I'm gonna scream it from the mountains Tell the whole world That you're the best of the crowd And I'm proud to be your girl (just my kind)” - “Just My Kind” The Julie Ruin https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/5f4c61d3-567d-4a6e-b0c8-340897c62573/IMG_0337.jpg Work - 2021 - Make it stand out “The Tent of the Lady of the Snakes” - 2021 (mixed media: silk, cicada wings, rusted wire, photographs, stamps, disco ball) This song used to be the story of my life: “she went to the tent of the lady of the snakes, who gave her a potion and she drank it in. After that, her heart never ached again” The magic I imagine within this tent is different now. the magic of vulnerability, softness, welcoming. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1627603508647-FDTDNXG7TY1H11PBSL43/IMG_8786.jpg Work - 2021 - Make it stand out “Gravitron” (2021) (Mixed media - antique blueprints, silk, kudzu) Finding direction, staying grounded, and finding sparks of beauty when the world is whizzing by. I harvested this kudzu with a dear friend the day before my dad died. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1629578118913-5Q7CCO8Q1F37ZGU7XAFD/IMG_9447.JPG Work - 2021 - Make it stand out :”Bubble Wrap” (2021) - (Mixed media - photocopied memories and heartstrings, acrylic half bubbles, pizza boxes, ben & jerry’s pints, photographs) Been thinking this year about the things that make me feel and things that I wrap myself up in to keep me from feeling. when I was a kid, I used to lie in the bath with only my face sticking out…I felt cozy, safe, protected. here i’m immersed in bubbles, with only my face sticking out. Life is short, pop the fucking bubble wrap, Rachel! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1629774198166-A75TKG532HVS7ZCJSVCE/IMG_9474.JPG Work - 2021 - Make it stand out “Waxing Heart” (2021) - (Mixed media - 78LPs, acrylic paint, photographs, fire, nails, Rupi Kaur, Pavana Reddy) this one snuck up on me. a little more on the nose than other things i’ve done and yet, here it is. lost my dad this year, son headed to college in a few days, intense conversations, miraculous summonings….my heart feels very exposed and vulnerable. “my wounds don’t feel like wounds in your hands, they feel like beginnings, like a chance to make things right again” “but what is stronger than the human heart, which shatters over and over again and lives” assuredly, intentionally waxing, not waning. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/cde44095-145b-4e91-b805-2e8772a7a631/IMG_0241.jpg Work - 2021 - Make it stand out “The Winding Stair” - 2021 (mixed media, acrylic, paper, LP covers) for you. for your love of Yeats and of the written word. for your contemplation of the world and the spirit. for visions of your arm. your arms. love you “we must laugh and we must sing we are blest by everything…..” https://www.iamgatheringwords.com/work-2020 daily 0.75 2021-07-30 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1627603188439-PPQH35WQVSZD53JHFV93/IMG_8477.jpeg Work - 2020 - Make it stand out “Nymphalis antiopa (Mourning Cloak) (for 2020)” (2020) (mixed media - LP covers, court and spark, rupi Kaur, Seamus Heaney, Adrienne rich, photos, obituaries) 2020 was laden with grief and heaviness. we carry the scars of that year forever, hoping we learn to love and care for our planet and all with whom we share it. we carry 2020 with us forever, moving towards the work that will restore light and hope for all of us. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1627602794343-FTYQ63MQBP5QBUGTCCW4/IMG_7622.jpg Work - 2020 - Make it stand out “The Very Fabric” (2020) (Mixed Media - burlap, LP covers, rice paper). Woven in from the very beginning of our nation, our very fabric—white supremacy and systemic racism. Can we keep pushing to make real change? to undo what was woven and become what the words ascribed to America so beautifully promise? As the great James Baldwin wrote, “I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1627603346415-1TWZOZIE6RNAYYE72JF2/MiracleLetGo.JPG Work - 2020 - Make it stand out “The Miracle is Letting Go” (2020) (Mixed Media - LP covers, photographs, my shadow, petals, barbed wire barbs). I read an article recently about a monk serving in a hospital during the Covid crisis. It was a beautiful article and he said “people are praying for a miracle; the miracle is to let go”. The Buddha says that suffering is caused by both grasping (to cling to the good things that we don’t want to end) and pushing away (to turn away from the things that are painful that are too difficult to be present with). To be awake and to, therefore, cease suffering means letting go by being present to what is—whatever it is, joy, pain, anger, loneliness, laughter, tears, etc.. What is it like to let go of things that are painful AND things that are joyful? Sometimes, we catch a glimmer of being fully present and free. truly, letting go is a miracle. I made this piece for my dad…it was agony to know he was suffering, and painful to let him go, but I feel relieved to know he’s free and floating far above his suffering. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1627602320229-UB047PUB3J8N6DQVP0DT/IMG_7043.JPG Work - 2020 - Make it stand out “Flight (Drag, Thrust, Lift) #1” and “Flight (Drag, Thrust, Lift) #2” (2020) (Mixed Media: photographs (mine, mostly from NYC), feathers, LP covers, maps). This is an homage to things that give us hope, flight, and lift when you feel weighed down. this is comprised of beautiful things I saw and photographed, books and women authors I love on strength, resiliency, and empowerment, maps of the place I love the best, LP covers, and feathers. I had a lot to weigh me down in the past two years, but beauty, places I love, laughter, light, and dear friends helps my wings not touch the ground. xoxo https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1627602674417-HVJ1XZUIHHHSVM38KR22/IMG_7282.jpg Work - 2020 - Make it stand out “The Accretion of Loneliness” (2020) (Mixed Media: LP covers, photographs (mine), gold leaf, tarot cards, ashes) Loneliness accretes. We start life with a tender, open heart and we develop layers of armor in response to wounds. As armor grows, so does our isolation. I treasure aloneness and solitude, but loneliness is a different state, imbued with regret and grief and isolation….can we remember our tender, fiery hearts? or will we keep the world at bay to protect ourselves? how much loneliness will accrete in our lifetimes? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/1627602515194-M6JY9LTE9ZAP00E88LNY/45A3ABF5-EB9E-4404-9521-0C747ADDC74D.JPG Work - 2020 - Make it stand out “Salvage” (2020) (Mixed Media photographs, acrylic paint, LP covers, tarot cards) this is an homage to what can be salvaged and rebuilt. the background are close-ups of the mattress coils from the debris after my mom’s house burned down. in the middle of that destruction, the coils looked so beautiful and striking. the woman is comprised of quotes from amazing women, apologizing to, praising, and healing their bodies. https://www.iamgatheringwords.com/work-2023 daily 0.75 2023-09-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/d0a9a83b-9092-4dbc-abe7-7d7e1b510acf/troy.jpg Work - 2023 - Make it stand out Troy (2023) - (Mixed Media: photos (mine), Beatles, stones, Joni, TRex, Frederick, Troy lyrics, early warning signs of fascism, injustices to scream about) To Sinead: the first artist whose guttural scream I FELT. the first liner notes that made me yearn for motherhood. your voice stirred my soul. our Cassandra, sleep well—we’ll keep screaming. https://www.iamgatheringwords.com/work-2022 daily 0.75 2024-01-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ab42650f93fd416edc09d82/6b01ebc3-8c01-4bca-a2b7-00bac6d20d2a/mouthfulforevers.jpg Work - 2022 - Make it stand out “Mouthful of Forevers” (2022- (Mixed Media: ink & paper handprints of my beloved, acrylic paint) To hold your hands in mine, to brush them with ink & press them down, capturing every whorl, to create an infinite circle with you… What can I say that’s not more beautifully expressed by Clementine von Radics? I am not the first person you loved. You are not the first person I looked at with a mouthful of forevers. We have both known loss like the sharp edges of a knife. We have both lived with lips more scar tissue than skin. Our love came unannounced in the middle of the night. Our love came when we’d given up on asking love to come. I think that has to be part of its miracle. This is how we heal. I will kiss you like forgiveness. You will hold me like I’m hope. Our arms will bandage and we will press promises between us like flowers in a book. I will write sonnets to the salt of sweat on your skin. I will write novels to the scar of your nose. I will write a dictionary of all the words I have used trying to describe the way it feels to have finally, finally found you. And I will not be afraid of your scars. I know sometimes it’s still hard to let me see you in all your cracked perfection, but please know: whether it’s the days you burn more brilliant than the sun or the nights you collapse into my lap your body broken into a thousand questions, you are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I will love you when you are a still day. I will love you when you are a hurricane. Clementine von Radics