Transcript: Assemblage and installation artist Betye Saar accepting the 55th Edward MacDowell Medal on August 10, 2014
Thank you.
Eighty-eight revolutions around the sun. Eighty-eight revolutions around the sun, and what do I have to show for it.
All the hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades. All of those behind me and yet here I am hunting and gathering, collecting, finding objects, images, materials, imprints, impressions, ideas, memories to recycle. To recycle, to reinterpret, to mix, to match. To recycle all the trash and treasure that I have with the obligation to reinterpret, to connect, to transform by cutting, tearing, nailing, painting, gluing, with fabric, paper, and paint.
My creative process, which is my art: collages, assemblages, installations. I guess that’s what I’m leaving behind. But anyway, I feel that I’m creating herstory, my story.
The MacDowell Colony encourages and supports creativity, just as all of us right here in this space are doing our part to encourage and support creativity.
And here I am a few weeks into my Eighty-ninth revolution around the sun. Here I am receiving this medal as my reward, and I feel that this medal says for me, ‘You go, girl!’
(applause and laughter)
And my reply is, ‘Thank You.’
(applause)
