I started reading this book almost four years ago. I underlined and dog-eared this quote back then, and I intended to create a collage from it. The piece I started became something else, it begged for a different direction. It became "go and find the people that you know," a figure dressed in maps, with an intense gaze and one hand raised in maybe a wave, maybe not.
I picked the book back up this winter, rereading it cover to cover. I chuckled at the passages I had underlined, wondered what some of the margin notes meant, and time traveled a bit with some pages.
When I reread the quoted passage, I knew it was time to create these two collages. It took several discussions and suggestions from friends and fellows to decide which flowers the characters in the collages should be eating, because I knew that would create a dynamic subplot that could easily weigh them down. I wanted to add another level of meaning, but still remember the original intent.
The decision to use the dandelion came first. It's not a weed, it's a lovely cheerful flower. It is edible, it is medicinal, and it brings wishes.
The second, the poppy, correlates both with the idea of ending war and bringing peace, as it is a flower of memorial. It is also one of dreaminess: Dorothy in the land of Oz, or the more sinister haziness of opiates.
A wish for peace, and a dream for peace.
