It's Coming Back But They Can’t feel it yet

Nora Hanasy-Cheers

Interview by L. Valena

Can you please describe what you responded to?

It was titled 'Winter', and it was a very short little poem, about two women walking in the cold with snow swirling around them.

What was your first reaction to that?

I thought it very beautiful, and straight away a lot of images were conjured up. I pretty much knew that I was going to create a digital piece from it, because I love making digital collages. I like putting things together. So I thought about it, and came up with a very wintry scene of two women, but you couldn't really see them very well. I left my work open for interpretation for the next person, by leaving in those words it's coming back, but they can't feel it yet. But I didn't give any hints as to what that something is that's coming back. Which in the poem was the sun, but I'm hoping that it'll be type interpreted in a different way.

Yeah. That's interesting that you included the line in there, actually. What what was it about that line that made you want to pass that onto the next person?

It's so open.And it was just was one of those sentences. It just stuck with me for this for some reason. I thought it was a very important part of the story.

Talk to me some more about where these images came from, that you pieced together.

Some of them were created digitally. Some of them I got from the image commons. There's some images there that are free to use, but I do like to manipulate them to the point where they're pretty unrecognizable in their original form. It took a while. To create something like this there's a lot of steps. A lot of layering, a lot of filters and special effects to create it. I had quite a few versions before I settled on the final one.

Can you tell me about this cool patterning in the sky?

The poem- I think it was a feeling that I was getting from the words. It's relaxing and it had this calmness about it, very meditative. And so that mandala... first I was looking for snowflakes to put into the image. But because of the way that those words made me feel, I changed my mind. Instead of the snowflakes for winter, I chose the mandala. That's the symbol.

Did this evoke any memories for you? I mean, what is winter like in Australia?

It did evoke a lot of memories for me. I've lived in Australia for a very long time, but I was born in Hungary. I do have childhood memories of walking to school in the snow, when it's up to your knees. I remember having to take really giant steps to be able to get very far. The landscape is gorgeous. I personally did not like the cold. I do love Australia and the heat, but yes- it did evoke childhood memories of my time in winter, laying outside. Especially walking to school, and waiting for that sun to peek out so you could feel a little bit of warmth.

Snow is so strange. It changes everything. We're actually anticipating a huge storm, this evening here in Boston. It's so weird because there's no snow on the ground now, but everyone's saying that we're going to get like 14 inches. Tonight. It's just gonna like drop on us, you know? It's so surreal. The landscape just changes completely, you know?

Oh yes. I left Hungary as a child, but as an artist now, I would just love that. To photograph that would be just amazing. We didn't get that here.

Yeah. But you have all the other cool stuff.

Well, Australia is pretty much in a heat wave. It is sweltering. It's between 30 and 50 degrees. You can look at the whole of Australia. Yeah. There's a lot of drought- it's pretty crazy.

I think the last time I talked to you, you were experiencing some fires in your town.

Yeah. We did have huge fires and after that we had a humongous supercell storm. It's always eventful here- never a dull moment with the weather.

It's so cool that you grew up in Hungary and you have these memories of the snow.

Yes- catching the snowflakes on your tongue. I remember breaking the icicles off the side of the house.

I love this silhouette of these two women walking.

That's a response to when it said it's freezing, but burning. It's kind of giving that illusion of both. Because when you are that cold, it gets to the point where you do feel like you're burning.

I love the closeness of these figures. There's a real warmth and a friendship that you can sense from them. It's really nice. What else would you like to talk about?

What else can I add to this? I don't think I can add any more really. I think the image speaks for itself. If you notice the tree, there was a sun there behind those branches. But, it's pretty much a nearly literal interpretation of the words this time, and it was just so easy to do with what I received. There was just so much imagery straight away, and I just wanted to recreate it. I just wanted to give an image to the, to the words.

You've done this twice now. Do you have any new advice for someone else?

Definitely give it a go. I was so excited- I was waiting for my next prompt because it is such a fun challenge. Challenging yourself as an artist to be limited. It's a lot of fun. It's always a surprise to see what you end up creating from what you receive. And, and it's inspiring. I'm an art teacher as well, and I'm going to do this with my students in the classroom and try to do this whole school, pass-it-on type project.

Call Number: C19.1PP | C24VA.haIt

Nora Hanasy-Cheers was born in Budapest, Hungary and has lived in Australia for over 30 years. She completed a Bachelor of Education degree majoring in Visual Arts. She has been an art educator teaching Secondary Visual Arts for over 16 years and recently went part time to devote more time to her art practice. She works with a variety of mediums preferring to layer and mix her approach when interpreting themes and subjects. Her main medium is collage and assemblage art using discarded and found materials.

[Editor’s Note: This is the end of this particular branch of the Cyan tree/stream. You can read more about our pruning initiative here. If this artwork/interview inspired some creative movement in you, and you would like to create a response to re-seed this branch, we would be psyched to have you! Just push the button below to get started.]