Collage Creative (Response to Quiz 9/26/11)

Stacy Steer's creative process is one of a very hands-on approach to collage. She begins by choosing sample images from clipart, uncopyrighted drawings and photos, and stills from movies. She uses her intuition to guide the images that are created and let the story unfold from her unconsciousness. She first develops a set background theme or world in which this story will take place. Then she creates hundreds of individual collages, moving and shifting things only slightly from one collage to the other, so that when they are photographed and sequenced, they create the illusion of motion. She then works with a composer to create the soundtrack for these stories, which are without narration. Much of the emotion and storyplot is heightened and enhanced by the music. She has gone from working with one composer to, more recently, working with an experimental musician. Her collages, when sequenced, achieve a definite sense of fluidity despite the imperfect process which allows that each frame will be all-over slightly different from the one before it, even in the areas that are not supposed to be shifting. This creates a sense of electricity and movement all over the frame in the end product. The parts that are supposed to be shifting do so by using many different images, often not of the same exact subject, but which can be recognized as representing one form, for instance a walking woman whose motion may be created by sequencing many different images of different women. The viewer understands that these are meant to represent one subject, however, despite these differences. The difficulty of this process is enormous, since it involves an incredible amount of patience to recreate the same scene dozens of times only changing one or two things. It is a very painstaking process, which involves much scrutiny and an incredible amount of courage in following one's intuition. The physical process is difficult, and then I imagine that adding music to these pieces is also a very difficult process, since the music is so inherent to the way the piece is experienced. The advantage is that she has ended up creating something very unique, whose every minute detail is hand-crafted especially for the work, and which I think is very incredible. She is creating what she loves, and has developed a very special, unique, and powerful means of creative expression in the process.