When my sister and I were children we caught a wild rabbit. I dashed after it through the sage bushes and finally picked it up, gently cradling it in my hands. Our parents told us to let it go immediatly. I didn't know you weren't supposed to catch rabbits. I watched it leap away back into the pale dusty bushes. I learned as the years went by there were a lot of things you weren't supposed to do. Don't feed the deer hay, don't hold the magpies, don't pick up the snakes, don't play with black widows. I wanted so badly to be a part of nature but I didn't know where I fit into it all.
This little 5x5 was something I made for an Exit Gallery Pop Up Show. Using acrylic paint, ink, and pigment crayons, I added layers until the image started to come together.
This piece is titled 'It Will Follow You' because I am speaking about things in life that travel with you through the years. Some things we choose to carry with us. They help us grow and become a better person. You can see these things inside of the rabbit's chest: deer, magpie feather, badger, skunk, fox, stars, turkey feather. These were my friends growing up. They taught me so much about caring for nature and how to respect other living things.
And then there are things that we don't choose to carry that follow us anyways. You can see on the left there is a pattern found on the body of wasps. Wasps and chokecherries in my artwork always represent the difficult past. There were a lot of things growing up that I wanted to leave behind. Some things take more work than others to shake off.
