24”x36” acrylic, ink, and copper wire on loose canvas. (Wooden hangers included.)

Created for a session on abstract art for the Rabbit Room’s Hutchmoot Homebound 2021 conference.

Tension is woven into the fabric of this piece.
Wooden bars stretch the loose canvas, copper wire is sewn through and flowing over, dimensional “lungs” draw the rippling fabric to the center, and washy brush strokes clash against jagged texture.

Breath is inevitable, subconscious, necessary. We do it without thinking, and its invisibility was always out of mind. But in a year where even this most basic and necessary process of life can be dangerous, we bring air to the forefront of our thought. We rely on ventilation to save us, but in two different ways.

Using the color palette of oxygenated copper, I want to speak to the fall of the original design. Something created for our good has been tarnished. Copper is used in this piece to represent the original good. Fragments of verses are woven throughout in copper, reminding us of truth that’s been lost to the chaos of this world worn thin. The last words of covid patients before ventilators, and the haunting final words of George Floyd also weave through the piece, written in white and the color of patina. We feel this clash with every fiber of our being.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

And yet, beauty finds a way through this tarnished tension, Copper intervenes again, interrupting the story and pulling it in a new direction. This hope is not a fragile one, but one that can reshape the very fabric of this grief.