“I put together and take apart old collages, always exploring the theme of grids. “

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Time: 2026
Location: My basement studio, Dartmouth, MA

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When did you first want to create this piece? What gave you the idea?

I have been exploring the concept of grids, especially using rusted metal and organic forms (dried milkweed pods), for years. I try to capture the contradictions of holding forms (grids) with things exploding out of the form (plant matter, seeds) as a metaphor for struggle.

What parts of your everyday life — your routines, responsibilities, relationships, surroundings, or inner world — find their way into your creative work?

Working in my pollinator garden, picking up rusted metal on the street during dog walks, the inner pull of order and chaos every day. Order as centering, chaos as necessary wildness.

What does the making of this work look like behind the scenes — the rituals, materials, moods, drafts, questions, or inspirations that help it become?

I have cardboard, canvases, trays of evocative objects from natuer and broken machinery parts. I put together and take apart old collages, always exploring the theme of grids. Paint, matte medium, wire spools, broken combs, gel print pad, inks, graphite…iron oxide. I step away and come back to see what belongs with what.

What do you wish people knew about the inner process behind this work?

Interior struggles with the need for order and the desire for wildness are quietly present in my visual work and poetry.

Lenore Balliro is a poet, art worker, and guerilla gardener living in the south coast area of Massachusetts. Her poetry has been published in a number of literary journals and anthologies. She is a past recipient of the RI State Council on the Arts award for poetry and the Gloucester Writers Center award for flash fiction.