Art

In Our Nature by Robin Rose Graves

A collage made of magazine clippings. The background is a telescope image of a star field, with the round edge of a pink and green nebula on the left side. On top of this is a small, torn clipping of black and white text. Beneath that is a cutout of white mushrooms growing on a tree stump. Down the center are more cutouts. From top to bottom: a white baby cow being held with just the hands of the person visible, a slightly blurred and desaturated cheetah, a black and grey goat with horns, a white wolf biting the face of a black wolf that is also baring its teeth, and a small black and tan dog mid-bark. The found poetry reads: "A centuries-old remnant / In the early days the zone was alive with roaming animals and pets / Defying police patrols and barricades / Two dogs scrap on empty streets".

Cut and paste collage made from magazine cuttings featuring found poetry.


Artist’s Note: “In Our Nature” collects images of animals, juxtaposing wild with domestic, predator with prey. The cosmic background serves as remembrance that in the bigger picture of the universe, differences are minuscule. The poem, found from an article on the chernobyl cleanup, anthropomorphizes the animals, giving them a rich inner life. The found poetry was cut from a 2020 article on the covid shutdown. Feelings of isolation and disconnect that continue years after the initial pandemic inspired this concoction.

Robin Rose Graves‘ fiction has appeared in 100 Foot Crow, Dark Matter Magazine and Simultaneous Times Podcast. Her love for the written word seeps over into her collage art, combining found fiction with dynamic and often juxtaposed images.

**PLEASE NOTE: This artwork is copyright of the artist. If you wish to use their artwork, please contact them to obtain specific usage rights PRIOR to using their art, an

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