Mosaic Monday/ Robot Totems

"Purple Robot Totem ( detail)"
© Rebecca Collins

I am still working on a series of mosaic robot totems. I am having fun with these projects and I want to fill a room with them. I have a  long way to go. I worked up an artist statement for this series. I am lucky to have a writer for a husband and he tweaked my statement for me. I always create the main content and then he polishes it for me, making it stronger and often more confident. He understands my work and by the time I want to write about it we have usually had many conversations about what is going on with the work.  I will paste my statement below the images.

"Purple Robot Totem "
© Rebecca Collins
4.5"x8.25"

"Green Robot Totem"
© Rebecca Collins
5"x18"

"Green Robot Totem ( detail)"
© Rebecca Collins

"Pink Robot Totem "
© Rebecca Collins
5"x18"

"Pink Robot Totem ( detail)"
© Rebecca Collins

Rebecca Collins / Artist Statement:

Totem: a being, object, or symbol representing an animal or plant that serves as an emblem of a group of people such as a family, clan group, lineage, or tribe reminding them of their ancestry (or mythic past).”

Concept: This last year I have found myself exploring an evolving theme of Robot Totems. Robots today occupy a space between pop culture romance, emerging science, and economic powerhouse. To deny them artistic consideration is to be ignorant of their impact on our changing cultural identity. On one level, I’m just having a lot of fun carving out their little clay heads and combining them with found objects, and techniques such as Photoshop collage and mosaic. On another level, I think of “robot” as a larger metaphor for the growing intelligence of the machines in our lives. I am seriously considering the powerful implications that “robot” is bringing to the forefront of what it means to be a 21^st century human. In these works I define the idea of robot in many ways at once. I hope that the viewer sees them in archeological terms as well as recognizing their contemporary presence. To me they are at once religious, irreverent, post-apocalyptic and full of creative promise.

Process: Like most of my work, these pieces are about experimentation and the intersection of artistic technique. By working in series I am able to push my skills and my ability to combine a wide variety of disciplines. One day I may be carving clay robot heads and then the next day I may be shooting them so I can drag them into Photoshop to manipulate them on the computer. I am having a grand time combining my ceramic work with digital collage, hand drawing, painting and mosaic. I want the viewer to be drawn in by the rich materials and then hopefully crack a smile as they sort out the conceptual constructs. I also want them to create their own stories, thus adding new layers to the complexity of these works.