Drew Story Artist Statement
From an early age I collected “treasures” and stored them carefully in boxes I kept under my bed. My early treasures included a wide variety of objects that I saw as interesting: shards of broken glass from a car accident, cereal box toys, rocks, even sticks. Each piece held some aesthetic or emotional resonance for me.
My compulsion to find, collect and store interesting objects continues today. On my daily walks I find my “treasures”, what other might consider trash.
Creating collages is a way of combining, arranging and displaying these eclectic collections of found objects into compositions that both holds and entertains the viewing eye.
I start each piece by pasting images or objects from my collection onto a wooden panel. At first the placement is random. However as the number of placed objects increases, I start to notice the dynamic created when elements are placed in relationship to each other. As I build the collage each element added begins to have an increased effect on the overall composition.
I have always been fascinated by the fundamental way the human eye and brain work together. My compositions are created with this awareness in mind.