Two silhouettes

The two pieces I will talk about are similar in material, handmade paper, but they came from two different places in my thinking.  

The first set of images are of a piece called Shadow and Tree The narrow scroll down the middle was cut from the initial long piece of paper. and woven with paper thread.  The shadow drawn on the whole scroll is from a tracing of my elongated shadow on the ground in the late afternoon.  I was thinking about the tall verticality of the central woven scroll as a tree cutting through the human shadow. The human shadow on this planet is menacing the survival of our species. But the planet, and the trees, will outlast us.  The scroll continues past the shadow and the story can (and I hope will) change.

The second set of images are from a piece called Anticipation. The silhouette is from a photo of a young girl waiting patiently. The piece is quilted with the word WAIT sewn four times.

I was thinking about the long history of black descendants of enslaved peoples in this county being told over and over again to wait, we white Americans aren't ready for that (many 'thats') yet. Society (white society) will be ready later.

I have yet to tie together the threads of nature and racism in my art making. I know there are many connections, but here they are just side by side.

Shadow and Tree

   

   

    

Anticipation

          

 

"Trunk of Old Papers"

Juried Exhibit Atlantic Gallery NYC 2021

Trunk of Old Papers is a reworking and rethinking of an older piece that was part of a solo exhibit called The Journal Project mounted in 2000.  I have mentioned both the reworking and the reflecting on the works in the show in 2000 in a previous post.  This work is a reflection on the personal opening of old trunks of memory. It is made of handmade paper that includes the shreds of my grandmother's journals.  My reflections revolve around an awareness of a family history that is connected to a period  in the South (and elsewhere) to the devaluation of African Americans.  Contemporary events that expose the horrors of that devaluation have prompted me to revisit my own work.

             

                            

Detail with old paper and new paper emerging from the side.