Light Bearers

As a fellow collagist (sometimes, & forgive the presumption), I know how difficult traditional collage can be. It's a matter, especially if you're creating a scene, of finding material that works- figures, an environment to put the figures in- all with the hope of creating something that's both unique enough to be interesting, but still has enough visual logic that it doesn't look like a pile of disparate stuff pasted together...
This piece works, & works well because the artist has pulled imagery from a number of different sources & created a work where the figures are in the environment, vs on the environment. The two ladies are perched on the stairs, shrubbery grows over the stairs, grounding them. In the background, that tunnel to the here-after has opened, begging the question, who's dead? Perhaps the one figure who is turned toward the light...Pale mountains loom in the background- which if you were looking at the collage as a painting, satisfies atmospheric perspective...And really, while technically, this is a collage, it observes all the rules of a successful painting, & that is a testimony to the artist's skill & vision.