Samantha Malay
‘Night Bloom’ is a series of collages I made from snapshots of old movies, reclaimed fabric and beeswax. They are glimpses of a dark house on a late summer evening, crickets heard through a screen door, a clothesline fluttering in an empty back yard.
Before moving to a remote homestead, my family lived itinerantly. We gleaned abandoned furniture on evening alley walks, found clothes and dishes at Salvation Army, and slept under the stars in campgrounds and fields. I use salvaged pillowcases and bed sheets in my mixed-media work because their floral designs and threadbare texture signify both the idea of home and the things we leave behind. Suspended in beeswax, an ancient archival material, my images are honey-scented mementos that never decay. I named my collage series after the night-blooming phenomena of plants like jasmine, cereus and moonflower, which are most beautiful and fragrant in low light.
Before moving to a remote homestead, my family lived itinerantly. We gleaned abandoned furniture on evening alley walks, found clothes and dishes at Salvation Army, and slept under the stars in campgrounds and fields. I use salvaged pillowcases and bed sheets in my mixed-media work because their floral designs and threadbare texture signify both the idea of home and the things we leave behind. Suspended in beeswax, an ancient archival material, my images are honey-scented mementos that never decay. I named my collage series after the night-blooming phenomena of plants like jasmine, cereus and moonflower, which are most beautiful and fragrant in low light.
Samantha Malay was born in Berlin, Germany and grew up in rural eastern Washington State. She is a theatrical wardrobe technician by trade, a writer and a mixed-media artist. Inspired by the plant kingdom and her collection of vintage textiles, she works with reclaimed fabric, travel ephemera and beeswax to create new textures and patterns.
Her poem/collage ‘Rimrock Ranch’ was exhibited at Core Gallery in Seattle in January 2017; her mixed-media images were published in the September 2017 issue of The Grief Diaries and are featured in the Fall 2017 issue of phoebe. Her artwork is available at Garden Essentia and Royal Mansion Gallery, both in Seattle. ‘Night Bloom #36’ appears on page 44 of the Fall 2017 edition of Temenos: Hidden in Sight. |