Suzanne Scott Constantine, 2004-2020
collage and mixed media on canvas, 20″ x 20″ diptych

These pieces contain multiple layers of acrylic paint, scored and repainted, along with collaged junk mail papers, painted stones and other found art. The artwork is about the contradictions and paradoxes of our lives. We long for simplicity, yet we beg for more, more, more. We yearn for peace, yet we make war. We covet unity, yet we sow division. Life is complicated, and this piece acknowledges that complicated nature. The written text in the negative space borrows a phrase from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself: “I contain multitudes.” The full stanza is “Do I contradict myself?/ Very well then I contradict myself,/ (I am large, I contain multitudes.)