Anyone’s Ghost (didn’t wanna be)

collage and acrylic on panel, 20.32 cm x 25.4 cm
April-May, 2025
Collection of Dr. Ryan Jense

​Artist Statement: Anyone’s Ghost (didn’t wannabe) rings changes from source materials in service of new elective affinities. Paper images of works from other media from diverse time periods and in wholly different original scale have been assembled on a background of acrylic paint on linen: a hooded figure from John Singer Sargent’s magisterial murals for the Boston Public Library, 1895; a detail from Negro Matapacos, stoneware and fabric by contemporary American ceramicist George Rodriquez; a section of George Segal’s life-size bronze sculptures at the National Stonewall Memorial, 1980; pears from several Lotería playing cards; a bird head culled from a magazine. Does their idiosyncratic juxtaposition suggest menace, mystery, or elegy? I made the collage to try to find out. In final stages of composition, layering additional pigment, I was listening to the National’s 2010 album High Violet, which includes the song “Anyone’s Ghost.” That title was the last piece borrowed and repurposed. Collage depends upon recycling. It’s rarely wholly free from vampiric transgression.

Richard Baldasty is a collagist, political essayist, and writer of short fiction. He lives in eastern Washington state.

A Song for Richard