cyanotype on linen, etching, papers, cut up vintage school posters, stamps, handmade wool felt,  cotton and wool string, thread, birch bark, gold leaf, copper ink, and other ink. 19 x 17 inches .

 

The image on this website is darker than it is in real life. I’m not sure how that happened, because I OKayed it, but maybe I am losing my eyesight. I need to wear stronger and stronger glasses while I make art. So grim. 

This artwork  is partially a story of mostly twos: two butterflies, two moths, two birds, two crickets.  Of course for these creatures,  togetherness is all biology, but it is nice to think of their unions as  magically magnetic, brought together by the mistletoe’s power.  

The base of the artwork is a cyanotype I made the summer of 2025, a ghost of summer past.   Then I sewed “living” weeds, flowers. leaves and bark over the blue base.  Life is taking over what is gone.  Life grows from death.  

A lonely,  seemingly foreboding mole, is underneath the ground. I didn’t make roots here, despite the fact that I am obsessed by them these days.  I assume the mole is not really lonely, but there is only one.  Even though to some, unseen life is boring, or even unpleasant and scary, it is important to  recognize it.   In this case, the mole has the crucial role of keeping the soil tilled and healthy which brings life to the above. 

Ironically, mistletoe does not have any roots and is green all winter, defying my whole spiel about the under-earth.   Druids saw mistletoe as bringing fertility, eternal life, and peace.  My artwork is definitely trying to articulate these points as well, but I am adding a little extra to the mix.