History Painting
I like to commemorate overlooked events in the representational tradition of history painting, yesterday’s news and natural history, as we reassess our relationship to the past.
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Ghost
(oil on wood panels). A meditation on the close proximity of contemporary women to a past that offered limited choices, as well as women who broke those bounds, like the Victorian Arctic explorers who climbed glaciers in corsets and skirts. The ghosts of both haunt women today. That's one way to look at it. -
Electric Lightning
(oil on aluminum). Representing the “sentry-box experiment” organized by naturalist Thomas-François Dalibard and performed during a storm at Marly-la-Ville, France, in 1752. It was based on ideas outlined in in Franklin’s 1751 publication "Experiments and Observations on Electricity." When sparks were visible on the insulated iron rod, it was clear that electricity was present in thunderclouds and lighting. Franklin performed his famous key and kite experiment a month later. My interest was piqued when I saw a rare bolt of positive lightning. -
Lichen: The First Symbiotic Relationship
(oil on copper, 27" x 14"). This is a take on history painting, commemorating "the marriage of fungi and algae” that creates extraordinary varieties of lichen. Fungi brings water and nutrients into the system and the algae can photosynthesize, while a fungus cannot. Inspired by the book "Braiding Sweetgrass." -
1918-1908-1928
(oil on aluminum). Panel 1 marks the 1918 travels of Tsianina Redfeather Blackstone to Europe as one of the first women to entertain WWI troops, following her rave debut at the Metropolitan Opera as singer and performer. Panel 2 shows the origin of the Charleston traced to The Grizzly Bear dance c.1908 San Francisco, the first of a series of “animal dances” and a scandalous break from previous forms. Panel 3 represents work from French couture houses, a radical shift in women's clothing and social norms.