I began creating this “Selfie Series” in the Summer of 2024 as a way to heal from sorrow. I would be on a walk - aimlessly thinking - and all of a sudden, I’d have to stop and sketch a composition on any scrap of paper I had. Or I’d desperately type some cryptic string of words on my phone, hoping I could make sense of it later. The inspiration for new art came flooding in. It was intense and overwhelming. But it was also cathartic. It grounded me during an aimless period. And this aimless period gave birth to these photo collages. They utilize portraiture and collage as a medium to connect to deeper psychological experiences of anxiety, sadness, and growth.
“One Day It’ll All Feel Better” kickstarted this exploration. I was sorrowful. Very quickly, I learned that there are fewer, deeper pains than agonizing invisibly and fewer examples of catharsis than being seen in suffering. A frequent soothing phrase I heard was, “One day, it’ll all feel better.” I resented that at first. The words felt hollow. But as the weeks turned to months, I began to see the truth in them and feel something new: from sadness came growth.
I sketched something one day that felt so clear and fully formed, like it needed to be made. And so, I set up my camera on a timer in my living room. It took several attempts to get the composition to match the sketch. My camera roll was filled with countless shots of my fingers, of my slightly dry houseplant, of me completely out of focus. Usually being behind the camera, stepping into frame myself was daunting. And liberating. All at once. I wanted the collage to have a warmth to it. I wanted the shadows to be deep and a little mysterious. Surrealism was the intention: the fingers resembled wings grasping at greenery - at something growing. And as I finished the piece, putting it all together on my computer for the first time in a while, I felt truly uplifted.
Quarcoopome, “who can love you more than you” (2024); Quarcoopome, “hug yourself tight” (2024)
From this collage, the floodgates opened. I kept the same theme and began to explore different compositions. My sketches got more surreal. I realized that I’ve always loved hands and arms and fingers in artwork. “who can love you more than you” imagined them as comforting cradles. I leaned into the metatextual touch of arms pulling two halves of a portrait together in “hug yourself tight”. There was an excitement to these creations, like I had found an artistic direction that I could continue to develop long into the future. The excitement continued into “versions...loading”. I took many of the same elements from the others but leaned even more into Afrosurrealism. The color tone brightened and became more golden. When I showed “forwards...always forwards” to my parents, my father remarked that the title reminded him of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of our home country, Ghana. He asked me if I’d intended the reference to Dr. Nkrumah’s iconic slogan when I named it. I hadn’t. I remember smiling at the coincidence when he told me what it was: “Forward ever, backward never.”
Quarcoopome, “versions...loading” (2024); Quarcoopome, “forwards always forwards” (2024)
Creating these collages has been a highlight of a turbulent year, and sharing them on this platform an honor. This has been a year of continued change, growth, and learning. It has been a reminder that life is never static. And fighting that fact brings little else but suffering. And that joy is all the sweeter, and inspiration all the deeper, for having met sorrow along the way.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Rubin Quarcoopome is obsessed with affecting stories. From his childhood in Ghana, hearing his father's tales of the mischievous Anansi, to his adolescence in Detroit absorbing anime and movies, stories throughout his life form meaningful connections with the world. Through photography and digital painting, Rubin relishes the Afrosurrealist, finding ways to make the ordinary weird, and the weird ordinary. His work focuses on Black stories and opening doors for others in the BIPOC community to thrive.
As an emerging artist in Seattle, he continues to grow his technical and creative skills in telling complex stories in his images. His work has been featured at institutions like the Bellevue Arts Museum, KEXP, Bumbershoot, and the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute. In 2022, he was honored as an Artist Trust Grantee for their 2022 Grants for Artists' Progress initiative. He has been published in spaces like Blank Space's Fairy Tales and Mob Journal. He continues to create new work in the Seattle area.
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