Poiema, Mortality and Resurrection is a series of paintings that explores themes of death, decay and new life as is experienced in the flora and fauna of the changing seasons. Juxtaposed to watercolor paintings are eggshells painted in acrylics, further illustrating the change of the seasons and the marching on of life. The paintings are accompanied by excerpts of poetry from Rainer Maria Rilke, David the Psalmist, the Anglo-Saxons and more.
“When I perceive that men as plants increase, / Cheered and check’d even by the selfsame sky, /Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease, /And wear their brave state out of memory;” -William Shakespeare (excerpt from Sonnet 15)
Watercolors: Upper Left: Leaves Fallow and Softly Fall, 14.25 x 18; Upper Right: All Flesh is as Grass, 14.25 x 18.5 in.
Lower Right: Acrylic on Eggshell: Dormant, Unwind the Water’s Chains (on goose egg), Bone-Brittle Branches
“Frost must freeze, fire melt wood,/ Earth grow, ice form a bridge,/ Water wear a helmet, wondrously lock Earth’s seeds,/ One alone, most mighty God, Shall unbind the frost’s fetters;/ Winter must pass; good weather will come again,/ Summer hot from the sun, the ocean restless./ The deep path of the dead will be secret longest.” – from Maxims I, an Anglo-Saxon poem, translated by Eleanor Parker (Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year, Reaktion Books, 2022)
Left: The World Turned to Waste, Upper Right: Fed upon by Fungi I, and Lower Right: Scattered About by the Wind
Watercolors: Unless a Seed Dies, 14.25 x 16.25 in. 2019 SOLD; Upper Right: The Quickening of the Trees,15 x 21 in., 2023,
Lower Right: Acrylic on Eggshells: Pussy Willows, Lilacs (on goose egg), and The Trees Drip with Abundance.
Watercolors: Flowers Appear on the Earth, Upper Right: Fettered in Frost I, 18 x 18 in. Lower Right: Fettered in Frost II, 18 x 18 in
Left: Monarch, Victory, and Red Dragonfly: Harbinger of Life Upper Right: A Gift of Flowers and Herbs Lower Right: Tulip Poplar
