By using the images I see in old photographs as references for my dyed-paper-collage paintings, I hope to give substance to the moments and memories captured in the photos. To do this, I incorporate in each painting figures, objects, and backgrounds based on what I've seen in the photographs. I begin by dyeing sheets of watercolor paper with transparent watercolors. I glue together torn bits and pieces of these tinted, textured papers to make collage portraits.
My collages are about continuity and remembrance. I sometimes combine old images with newer ones, merging people of different generations. I might link images that are years apart, blending a formal studio portrait with a spontaneous snapshot. For instance, by combining images from photographs of a husband and wife as children with images of them as adults, I can unite the past and present, creating portraits that are very personal. I also feel that when you can't put names to the faces in old photographs, it's as if the people pictured never existed. Whether formally posed or spontaneous, photographs record a single moment. Each time we look at the image, that moment is real again.In 1980, Cohen began experimenting with collage as fine art. An exhibition of her paintings entitled "Where Did They Go When They Came to America?" is on display at Hebrew Union College in New York City until December 31, 1991. Consisting of portraits done over the last two years, the works are based on the oral histories and old photographs of families who settled all over the country.
This info i get from Subscribed Online Databases
and the URL is http://search.proquest.com.ezaccess.library.uitm.edu.my/docview/232301329?accountid=42518
Cohen, Marilyn. (1992). Collage: Making Memories. In M.
Cohen, Collage: Making Memories (p. 44). United States: Nielsen Business
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