inspiration through materials: Nancy Spero

I found that Nancy Spero and I work in similar ways. In the videos of her at work, she wanders around her studio digging out multiple images from her vast collection. She lays the various disparate parts out on the table and begins to synthesize the imagery. Spero layers her imagery, then removes them and relayers them. It's a visual process, a discovery. In this process of play, she gains inspiration from her materials, which leads to the final composition. The idea is there to begin with, but the visual outcome is not yet conceived. It's through the hands-on creation process that the idea becomes reality.