by Bella Erakko
Juxtaposing seemingly disparate images, layering hidden connections, would not come easy to most people. But Peggy’s collages do just that. If art could, on occasion, be late night comedy, Peggy Ballard would be there with her glue stick.
She often works with women’s issues and how women are perceived. “One I call ‘Beached.’ A very large overweight teen is at a beach surrounded by women in bikinis. How people perceive overweight women; how we accept women based on their physical appearance; how people feel the right to make comments on a woman’s physical appearance.” Other collages focus on companionship with female friends. And some leave all message aside, such as Green, where a woman dressed in soft green dress stands with upstretched arms into a verdant background of plants and fruits.
Her process? “All my material comes from before 1959. That’s when paper and ink changed. The modern ink sits on slick paper. The ink comes off, and the paper rolls up when glued. Old paper doesn’t do that.”
She garners old Look, Life, Pageant, National Geographic magazines, and Sear’s catalogs. She has cataloged drawers: women, men, couples, birds, plants. Sometimes incomplete collages wait for years, then she finds the right combination of images.
“Collages,” Peggy chuckles, “do not have to be serious. Some are … but“ And like a good stand-up comedian, she lets you look for that but …
An opening reception will be held on Saturday, May 13, 2023 from 4 until 7:00.
