Maple Bug
Maple Bug 1-4, acrylic on canvas 12” x 12” each $1600 (set of 4)
Upon returning from Australia in January, I began working on Animals in Exile at home in Glenburnie. While getting reacquainted with the sounds that are the idiosyncrasies of every older home, I soon discovered signs of an unplanned cohabitation: black and red bugs lumbering across a bathroom sink, my bedside table, the kitchen counter, floors and windows throughout the house, my canvas and, sometimes, my pillow. As the weeks went by, and as I learned not to drown them when I brushed my teeth, not to step on them when I walked, and not to vacuum them up when I cleaned, something Angela had said while discussing her works took on a new resonance. When we believe ourselves to be completely alone and isolated, animal life, no matter where we happen to be, is always there, with us, to keep us company.
This series of paintings is dedicated to my unlikely housemates, the boxelder beetles who, while keeping me company, witnessed the making of this exhibition. Like Close-up I, II, III the series is a play on photography’s technical ability to bring into focus aspects of reality that would otherwise not exist for us.