I had one magazine sitting around, a 2009 Allure I bought to read on the plane back from my brother's engagement party in Chicago. At first, figuring that a beauty magazine wouldn't have adequate representative images, I looked for colors and found a nice shade of blue and several greens. Then, some images started to spark memories. My artistic sense was tingling.
A picture of leafy green trees and colorful flowers from a Zyrtec ad brought back childhood summer camp trips and my gardening last summer at once. A woman in a skyscraper observatory was reminiscent of many similar sights in places as diverse as New York, Brazil and Paris. Not long after, a pile of sleek matching black and white suitcases. Perfect for travel (even if my family uses non-matching, non-designer suitcases in solid black, brown and green).
An array of empty glass perfume bottles, when cropped effectively, bore a vague resemblance to reaction vials and reagent bottles from General and Organic Chemistry labs. The picture of a spa worker painting a clay mask on a woman's face was close to painting a picture, and when I draw I tend to focus intensely on the face.
So far, the pictures assembled memories of places and images. But since the collage was about personality and dreams too, I needed something deeper. The picture of a married couple holding hands was sweet, and echoed a sweet, but distant hope. What had happened recently?
The central image, a bare shouldered woman hugging her knees, reminded me of my mikveh day, almost three years ago. Her posture didn't communicate the common message of some semi-nude shots: "look at me because I'm naked" but quiet determination in her poised face and still, but not stiff limbs. The way one should stand before stepping into the mikveh waters.
I'm looking forward to seeing my classmates' collages, and hoping I can find a way to explain the pictures in Hebrew that's true to the way I chose them.
