2019, fabric, papers, ink, thread, string, beads, photographs, stamp, felt, acetate, 68 x 41 inches.

Previously, I tried to make a Noah’s Arc and cut out every animal from all my stamps. Unfortunately, it is very bad artwork. Maybe one day I will finish it. After the animals were gone from the stamps, I was left with the stamp’s exteriors. I decided to make bark with them. I liked the way that a bark’s shapes vary and are inconsistent. I backed each stamp hole with different materials.  The bark on our four Lime Trees in our back garden at Bassett Road are full of undulations. I love the crusty chunkiness.

Sometimes we have to get the tree trimmed. One, it is healthy for the tree if you live in the city. Two, our back neighbour complains to the council because our Lime trees drip on her drying laundry. I’m actually not sure how her laundry dries in London in the first place, but one has to be a good neighbour.  When they trim the trees, they often take most of the branches off. It is very depressing. The worst part of it is that they  destroy the ability of the trees to produce leaves for a whole cycle which ruin the birds’ habitats.    

Here we have a lonely pigeon, one of our constant Bassett Road companions, trying to make a habitable nest. It is a sad sack situation.