African Dawn

Handmade paper collage, 4 3/4 x 5 1/4"

I published several books of poetry that were illustrated with handmade paper collages. In this illustration an African woman is washing her hair in the river of dawn. The areas that look blue are actually silver tea chest paper. The papers are made from a native papyrus that grew in my mother-in-law's front patio in Camarillo, wild rye and wild oats from empty fields in Camarillo, and cattails collected along the back road to Herndon that were mixed with Japanese mitsumata.