ARTIST STATEMENT

I am endlessly interested in the various ways text and images or text and found objects can be mixed and remixed, even with similar 'objects' and figures. In building a collage, I frequently give myself constraints--an initial woodblock print, a particular color palette, a circle, or an edge. Then, I work within that constraint until inevitably something must obscure the print, break the circle, hang over the edge, or be a totally different color. Text (or musical scores) as background is another constant. Sometimes the words themselves become important, but frequently the words, numbers, lines in the background fill just enough space to let the collage elements 'sit in a place' that does not grab them too tightly. 

One particular ongoing investigation has been combining woodblock prints with collage. In this series of ‘Fancy Sheep’, I am imagining how a sheep, who has observed humans, but not necessarily understood everything, might make itself ‘fancy’. There are, of course, some misunderstandings.

My sculptural pieces, also text-heavy, are an ongoing three-dimensional scrapbook of sorts. These are bits of memories combined and recombined, all in the shape of larger-than-life milkweed pods. Each set of pods has a consistent paper exterior (pages from the same book, repeated map, etc) that has me thinking about a category of experiences or memories. Then, as I continue that thought experiment, I gather materials (all reused, recycled, found) that help me expand on that memory or place; all of that comes together to form the interior, more secret part of the pod. When grouped together, they are another way to consider the curious combination of reality, memory, and whimsy. Visit wendyeiteljorg.wixsite.com/artist to learn more about Wendy and view additional works.