I have to say I am absolutely enchanted with Chicago artist Michael Pajon's incredible collages. Of his collages he says: "This group of work contemplates the most humble of human remains: old matchbooks from junk shops, antique postcards and books, sheet music from my great aunt's collection, crackerjack toys that belonged to my mother, and other objects once lost and resurrected." His work pulls together all these small ordinary and fantastic elements to create a composite visual identity of American culture.
But these rich and complex collages also are filled with story. The collage above is a detail of "American Standard XXXVI: Jimmy's Adventures in the Inland Empire." I find myself "reading" the series as I did when I was child -- unable to follow the words and instead finding the story in the concatenation of images. Parjon has provided detailed explanations of the symbolic imagery for some of the individual pieces from his American Standard XXVI series, such as the two below. One is a memorial to his brother who was in the air force, and the other is the story of a young woman's journey to the city -- inspired by the vintage letter which forms the ground of the collage. Do stop by the site -- it's really fabulous.
