This Mixed Media artwork titled:
RADIO HEAD is one in a Series of collage artworks from contemporary artist, Ellen Sidor's "WOUNDED WARRIORS" art project. Each piece in this series of mixed media artworks is designed to bring attention to the plight of homeless veterans from the various branches of the U.S. Military. In each piece in this series, Sidor brings together a collage of disparate items that blend together into one theme...the cold, hard reality that U.S. Veterans face when they circle "back to the world" after defending our freedoms, and surviving the harsh realities, in theaters of war from around the globe.
This artwork: "RADIO HEAD" focuses on the importance of communication in waging war successfully and the effect of hard, sometimes life-taking, sacrifices our Veterans have had to make to keep the lines of communication open. Sometimes those sacrifices create life-altering fissures in the psyches of our Veterans and it's too hard for them to re-adjust to living among those who most benefitted from their sacrifices.
Sidor's use of symbolism in "RADIO HEAD", both real & figurative, is used to drive home the melange of realities our Veterans face on a daily basis. The Strike Team arm patch, broken transistors, spiral wires, military issue belt buckle are the items based in reality while the various faces embedded in the head, facial cracks & headless plastic army man are the figurative symbols that all blend together to give us just a glimpse of the damaged psyches our Wounded Warriors have to face, and survive, on a daily basis.
"RADIO HEAD" is a Mixed Media artwork designed on a ceramic panel and surrounded by a angle iron frame custom welded around the artwork. It is 12 1/2 inches in height - 10 inches in width and weighs 5 Lbs 7oz.
Ellen Sidor is a New Hampshire native who trained at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She is a lifelong artist now residing in Tucson, Arizona.