Christine Shanks

Christine Shanks © All Rights Reserved

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them — that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” – Lao-Tzu

“If you don’t get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don’t want; you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold onto it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change. Free of pain, free of obligations of life and death. But change is a law, and no amount of pretending will alter that reality.” – Dan Millman

The photomontage mixed pieces of the Metamorphosis series were created as a reaction to the pain, fear, hesitation, and excitement I felt as I transitioned into my adulthood and independence. The images relay narrative stories about events in my adult life using objects from my past and present. They explore memory and how our past shapes our future. As a collector I have catologued my life using objects, drawings, letters, and poems as well as pop-culture, music and artistic influences. They all came together in the Metamorphosis series, new and old, to create images about the transforming qualities of pain and love and the events that mark our evolution from childhood into adulthood.

The origins of the objects in the Metamorphosis series become important symbols. Many objects repeat themselves in different photomontages becoming symbols of reconstruction, emotion, change and growth. Some of the objects that symbolize pain and it’s transforming qualities are actual pieces of me such as my wisdom teeth and a used bloodied bandage. My drawings, cyanotypes, and photographs are displayed among found objects, musical lyrics and printed materials that I have collected over the years. In order to create the photomontages all of the materials were scanned using a flatbed scanner with transparency option. The photomontages were constructed in Photoshop utilizing Photoshop’s cutting and pasting features as well as blending and drawing capabilities. But in order for the montages to take on a new life they needed to become more than a paper print, they had to become dimensional and return to an object-like form.

First the montages were printed using an inkjet printer and matte paper. Then they were copied onto a transfer paper called Lazertran using a photocopier. The Lazertran was then applied using a turpentine technique to sculpted porcelain slabs. The porcelain was chosen for it’s transparent qualities when it is in a thin slab form. The porcelain had to be fired twice, once without a glaze and then again with a clear glaze applied. The texture of the porcelain is an important part of the final pieces. Important symbols and focal points in each montage were chosen to become sculpted porcelain shapes. The sculpted slab shapes were put on risers to seperate them from their background slab. This gave the final pieces form. The sculpted shapes create their own shadows making the pieces dimensional.