Collage shortcuts

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In the previous post I wrote about the verbal elaboration that takes place after the making of the collage. But it happens very often now that I am trying to “push” the collage even if the picture is already quite seducing, also semantically.
The first idea was that grotesque dance of a man with a half-naked woman, the contrast between the two, but I missed something on the left side where one could see a male torso and a head above the outstretched arm. I couldn’t find a formal solution for that strip. I thought about cutting out the background above and left side, but I didn’t like to put the black and white figure against a colored background. I preferred sticking something over it, leaving the head partly free. This transformed the picture in a hint to crucifixion, the man clings his arm around the suffering woman. But the left side wasn’t resolved, so I modified it completely, the picture becoming a deadly dance (Totentanz) with reminders of Böcklin for the red dress and the morbidity of the subject. By this, the main figure became less dominant, but better linked to the left side. The final touch just stressed the left figure so that the whole became a possible father-mother-child constellation as well as the dancing figure, making it do a tango-like step and I cut off the big tit.
What did I gain?
First of all more confidence. Indeed, I managed to finish the picture to my satisfaction. Secondly a more conscious elaboration process which remains as open as possible for innovation. The book I discussed in the former post shows collages that go a straight way, with few mods – all the conception is done when the parts are glued together, whereas my ways are in zigzag, with many important changes during the making of the collage. I’m an improviser, not a planner, but as in music, improvisation is always confined in borders – otherwise, there would be chaos. But the picture must undergo transformations – in my eyes this is the essence of collage. Otherwise I could just as well paint after some collage. I am conscious that working this way means taking some risks, but I am granted with deep satisfaction when it works. In fact, I very seldom tear a collage up, I mostly can handle the situation. Do my unconscious processes help me? For sure, after some 40 years of collage, there must be some specialized area in my brain. But there is also a lot of consciousness at work. Not like – “Let’s make a collage on a dancing woman”, but “Oh, this woman in a red dress needs a partner, yes, there’s a head with a hand at the shoulder, let’s put it against the woman’s breast. Nice, like a baby. And now, what legs?” Etc. One association gives birth to others. I never succeeded at it in painting.
Behind the picture, there is work and inspiration and … knowledge of what other artists did and do now. And the many “repentirs” (= regrets or repaints) underneath the final collage which marks the end of the zigzag.
My personal fate – a kidney operation is underlying the picture, but not directly. Maybe I am the dancer? Death smiles at me, a little man trying to seduce her. It won’t be my last tango, I am sure this time, even if I am reminded that life comes to an end.