The Love of Our Fate
Brain Food
Printmaker’s Collage
8 x 10"
When Lorie Lee Andrews gave herself the goal of making 40 collages for her show, titled The Love of Our Fate, she didn’t expect to have so much fun making them. Andrews began her creative process thinking that she was making a biographical work about her mothers’ life, who suffers from dementia. However, as she continued to make the collages Andrews discovered that she wasn’t just making work about her mother, she was inviting healing into her life through making art. Andrews uses the brain as a symbol for her journey with her mother’s health and creates work that utilizes puns on phrases containing the word “brain.”
“I issued myself a challenge. I did an etching of a brain and chose to make 40 pieces of mixed media art and I declared to myself that each piece would contain at least one image of the brain etching. As a printmaker, I had plenty of scrap material from prints that didn’t work out and monoprints, wood cuts, etc. During the course of my creating, various literature and information was placed in my path that impacted the purpose of the art. A quote by Joseph Cambell that references Nietzsche’s concept of ‘Amor Fati’ which is Latin for ‘The Love of our Fate’ gave the show its name. This set me on a path of greater acceptance regarding my journey with my Mother. A book called, Your Brain on Art by Susan Magasmen and Ivy Ross provided scientific evidence that making art could bring me peace and joy in my acceptance.
“This whole thing turned into having fun and using the things I love to do to have fun,” Says Andrews. “The brain is a big deal. I used it as a symbol of that part of my journey that I was seeking to love. It represents the tough stuff that could really pull me down if I let it and I’m not going to let it. I didn’t start out making metaphorical, whimsical stuff. When it shook out I thought, ‘This is what she would want.’ Everything I’m using to love this journey is something she instilled in me– humor, creativity, play, and joy.”
The show can be viewed anytime during the month of November in the Lift Gallery during Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. The works can additionally be viewed and purchased on our online gallery through December.