Reliquaire – Mixed Media Collage on Paper

The Original

Reliquaire by Robin Rivers is an original piece of mixed media collage on paper. I created this piece using archival photography, handwritten letters, found photography that has not been digitally altered, handmade papers, and acrylic medium. 

How I source and care for historical materials → Sources

The piece measures 6×8″ (w/h) unframed and is mounted on paper. Shipping will be calculated based on location.  Please note that colours and contrast vary between different monitors.  The colours may not match your monitor’s display exactly. Additionally, copyright of my artwork does not transfer with purchase.

The Inspiration for Reliquaire by Robin Rivers

Reliquaire is inspired by women. If you look closely you can find so many layers of women’s lives in this piece. A woman in Warsaw checking a rations list, a dancer in Paris exhausted after a performance. A woman in her own home. All sacred relics.

Sources

• • Archiwów Państwowych (State Archives of Poland)
  • Paris Musées Archives
  • Found photography (thrifted in Vancouver, Canada)
  • Artist materials
    • Handmade papers, vellum, gold paint and gilding, photo paper, gel pens, acrylic matte medium

Notes on Care

I build each collage from public‑domain materials—primarily found pieces, archives—and note what’s known about dates and collections. Where details are uncertain, I mark them as circa. My aim is to honor the past—its beauty and its blemishes—while inviting you into a story that feels intimate and true to its time.

The Artist

Robin Rivers is an artist, photographer, and writer who creates from conversations with ancient ponds and old trees, spirits of place and old ones whose lost stories want to be told. As a mixed-media artist, Rivers works with original photography, museum archives, and storytelling to give form to the old ones who speak to her through dreams, deep listening, and walking the land in ancient places. Her practice weaves together mystical guidance and archival research, creating magical pieces that restore powerful lost connections and stories rising up once again. Robin creates all pieces at Studio Albertine in Vancouver, Canada—on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples. This includes the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Before you go, check out more of my work HERE.

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