Head in the Sky (2012-ongoing) originally began as a writing exercise to explore character development. Each week leaf jerlefia made collage characters thinking deeply about external presentation and internal conflict.
“At that time, I considered myself an artist first. But as I began to dive deeper into my writing craft I found new ways to tie the two paths together. Often that bridge manifested as words in paintings, or reoccuring symbols that told hidden stories. Head in the Sky began as a strategy to cure my writer’s block. I was writing a lot of short stories at the time and kept thinking about single sentence character profiles. Ultimately, I started writing one line prose poetry with the intent to allow the reader to see so much with so little. Making them became incredibly calming. I’d just cut, paste and day dream about people, culture and symbols.” – from Notes on Head in the Sky, leaf jerlefia
Quickly, the series expanded to include over 1000+ collage characters.
sugar & spice, 2014
“Over the years I come back to this exercise and it’s illuminating to see how much has changed. How much I have changed. Sometimes the pairings seem inevitable. Sometimes there are deep complications, heartbreaking turmoils in some of the characters. Sometimes their stories linger on my mind for weeks.”
long distance, 2015
Famous Last Words 