Exposing Scarlet; CPCC Responds

This image is on display in Pease Gallery through March 31, as part of Artsfest at CPCC. Please visit Exposing Scarlet: A Visual Response to the Scarlet Letter in Ross Gallery, and CPCC Responds in Pease Gallery.

Portrait of My Mother, For My Daughter

pearls, watercolor on 300lb Arches paper, mounted on canvas, 24x30"

One day I found a sweet looking photograph of my mother as a child. “Are you holding a doll in this picture?” I asked. “No” she said. “I’m holding my dead sister”. It was common in Appalachia during that time to record life and death through a photograph. As I read the Scarlet Letter, I was conscious of the role of nature and the impact of civilization. Nature takes without conscious thought or deliberation, as with my little aunt I never knew. Pearl, regardless of her conception, survives by nature’s whim. Today, nature doesn’t always decide fate…she could be created in a test tube or vacuumed from her mother’s womb. In regards to nature and science, I do not propose that one is good and the other bad…they are simply facts of life today. Portrait of My Mother, For My Daughter acknowledges the grace that allows my mother, myself and my daughter to survive by nature’s whim and without civilization’s intervention. The pearls in the painting represent the lives that are not so fortunate.