Hallowed Ground and Paper Moon
A question raised in each picture is ‘How did they get there?’ Tattoos of maps adorn the back of a sow; animals convene from all corners of the world; a boy plays the banjo on a rowboat next to a floating table set for dessert. In a rendition of Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, a girl standing on the back of a white mare observes the crossing of the general and his men. Emanuel Leutze composed three versions of the painting in 1850, moved by the wave of upheavals and democratic revolutions that spread throughout Europe in 1848. He sought to inspire the reformers with the example of the American Revolution. His models posed in the Rhine River near where I now live and where this body of work was done.
The paintings are made from observation and draw from history — the painted, the written and the told around campfires.