Karen Melady is a singer and songwriter, performer, poet and visual artist, born in Goderich, Ontario in 1961.
Scope and content
The book, untitled, consists of plastic laminated colour photocopies of eight original collages, eight pages, the collages titled: "Musicians tend to look...," "It's a three candle sentinel...," "My son is pouting," "Try not to be an animal," "When the men are playing...," "Eagles soar here...," "I never could remember...," "You leave your feelings...," created in 1996, published in 1997 in Vancouver: Like a Fool Publishing Ink.
Notes
The materials of the original collages are: magazine images, typed paper, original poetry, felt pen, paint, oil pastel, crayon
The artist provided the following statement: "These collages of images and words came out of a very introspective time following the death of her mother. Karen selected short poems from her existing collection based on length and her attraction to the images they contain. The small scale and the portable materials lent themselves conveniently to the art interruptus mode of single-parenting her young son. The small format is, in return, accessible to those with only short moments to themselves. Collage also reflects the theme of "bits and pieces" that exists in combining her art with parenting, a situation in which thoughts and actions are often cut off, mixed up, left waiting, sometimes to be returned to and sorted and sometimes left to fallow. Karen is particularly enthralled with the idea that a combination of several messages can be sent at once by virtue of the postcard format: her own words and images, the words of the sender and the intent of the sender in selecting the particular card. She intends to compile these and more cards in book format."
