The Saints' House |
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The haunting photographs of Hurricane Katrina survivors as they emerged from the New Orleans Convention Center acted as a powerful catalyst for this work. I was struck by how much they resembled Renaissance paintings of saints with the classical arrangement of the figures and the look of grace on the worn faces. Two were especially poignant: a woman and young child resembling a Madonna and Child; and a man, woman and child which seemed to embody the Holy Family in flight. I made saint’s medals with the photographs, using gold leaf for halos as the early painters did.
The “house” was a natural progression as I realized that the medals needed a presentation box. Sometimes if I have a nightmare, I rework the ending so it won’t upset me further. In the case of this nightmare, I wanted to make the house have some escape routes: thus the lift-up roof, the stilted house and the boat, the Evangeline, named for the Mississippi River town that flooded in the 1920’s.
The “house” was a natural progression as I realized that the medals needed a presentation box. Sometimes if I have a nightmare, I rework the ending so it won’t upset me further. In the case of this nightmare, I wanted to make the house have some escape routes: thus the lift-up roof, the stilted house and the boat, the Evangeline, named for the Mississippi River town that flooded in the 1920’s.