Completed collage in profile

I started this collage about two months ago, but had abandoned it. I had a basic profile but it looked like a muppet: beady eye, large nose, flat no-mouth from nose to chin. The blue swirl was in-place at the bottom, the bird feathers already coming out of the top of the head, and the blaze of flamingo cheek flowed into its blue rippled reflection. But I was stuck. I didn’t want to collage a muppet and I was at a loss for where to take it next. So, I set it aside and moved to other things or nothing, but not this.

Then last week I sat down to work on something, anything and this partial collage was in with my pile of collage scraps. I pulled it out and looked at it for a bit. On the top of my scrap paper was a magazine image of a woman in a sickly chartreuse/mustard puffer coat and matching pant leg. And I saw it- the zipper mouth. I slashed the coat image apart and placed it on the face and added the burgundy and teal pieces and the pink eyebrow, the mountain climbers and birds.

The colors in this piece are like nothing I’ve combined before. It was a leap for me. The portrait is more structural and painterly than I imagined it could be. I’m now fond of this once-muppet with its tongue out, surly eye and flamingo cheek.