Breath Object Series

 Hello, I'm Jeremy Grant, and I'd like to tell you about my series Breath Objects. The Breath Objects are an ongoing series of collages that deal with ephemerality and solidity. Like many of my abstract collage works, I like to think of them as visual poems. A poem laid out on the page has a visual constraint.

There's a finite page size. There are defined margins on that page, and there's an implied directionality to your experience of what is on that page. For example, in English, you will most likely read left to right and top to bottom, and poets will often play with the shape of their words on the page and the visual rhythms that emerge from that.

The cadence implied by the spaces, and while I enjoy poetry, I find that words often fail to evoke all that I feel, and that's probably a personal failing. But I wanted to create a type of poem that relies on the form of poetry, the sheep of poetry, but only uses visual elements, line and color and texture, and the abstract shapes in these works have a form, which I like to read.  Sort of tracing the movement with my mind as they wind back and forth within their defined margins.

The background of these pieces are largely images of natural disasters, reminding us of our ephemerality, our smallness, in contrast to the force of nature and the cosmos. Our delicate existence depends on our continued breath, a fragile proposition. But on the other hand, our inhalation and our exhalation can set our intention, bringing ideas into reality, which is the balance of breath and object.