Patterns and Prints
I made this piece in the dead of winter, on Christmas day in Chicago. I was snowed in for 3 days, and couldn't drive home to Cincinnati for the holidays. Plus, I was rather depressed, because I had to spend Christmas alone. When I looked out the window at the large fluffy flakes that were falling, the space felt like a blanket of white. It was a blustery, cold, and melancholy day. I had a little bird book that my Grandma Mary gave me. She always tried to get me to identify birds like she could. Instead, I cut it up, traced images of the silhouetted birds on old dress patterns, and collaged them onto the canvas. Winter in Chicago is blustery and cleansing. Some days, we are submerged within a sea of whiteness --- and feel powerless over nature. Birds surface in my recurring dreams --- some are harbingers of things to come. I'm still not done with this painting. I really don't like it much. (But I am my own worst critic.)