The Awards Collective was created to feature the works of artist who have received a Juror’s Award or Director’s Award in ASG’s Online exhibitions.  Linda Plaisted’s  image “Rose Red“ received the Juror’s Award in the “portraits” exhibition juried by Donna Garcia.  Linda’s exhibition “How The Light Gets In” was featured from January 1 to January 31, 2025 and is discussed in our GalleryTalk with Linda.

Artist Statement

Instead of showing work from only one series, because I am a rather prolific creator, I chose instead to share a selection of work I created in 2024 using Light as a major component that ties all the work together with an unifying thread. I came rushing into 2024 bearing light in my Glimmers series and here I am in my latest work, still carrying a torch, lighting the way forward into 2025.

One of my series called How the Lights Gets In was created in response to a good friend’s terminal cancer diagnosis, which landed like a grenade amid the constant bombardment of dark and disturbing news we have all been subject to this year. Reeling, I was looking for a way to express my own grief and society’s collective despair, so I used my morning art-making as a therapeutic practice; searching for pinpoints of light in a dark time. I heard an old Leonard Cohen song one day and his words rang true-

“Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in”

Ancient peoples once believed that the stars were holes in the sky where ancestors looked down on us from above; eyes shining. I found great comfort in this simple idea. Throughout this past year, I created multiple series of work layering my original photography, vintage found photos and collected paper ephemera, then added places in each piece for light to get in and love to shine out. It’s a multi-step, multi-disciplinary process that synthesizes my studies in photography, fine art, psychology and mythology to alchemize dark materials into light.

Linda Plaisted
January, 20025

Bio

Linda Plaisted was born in Pennsylvania in 1967, educated at the Art Institute of Philadelphia, Temple University and George Mason University, where she earned degrees in Fine Art, Illustration and Literature. A 2002 Magna Cum Laude graduate of GMU, her final portfolio was recognized as the most creative in her graduating class of 25,000. As a pioneer in contemporary photomontage, she founded Many Muses Studio in 2000 as a place to explore the marriage of many media. She has led private workshops and acted as artist-in-residence in public and private schools and universities; teaching photography and art workshops. Having lived in the DC area for over twenty years, she currently lives and works in Frederick, Maryland. After decades of full time motherhood, she is back with a bit of a vengeance and seeking studio space to pursue larger mixed media projects.

website: lindaplaisted
instagram: @themanymuses

link to online exhibiton