The Home Economy Revisited (again)
Last time I promised to deliver more than I was able to. I sincerely apologize. (But if I spill all my guts in one epic post, what subjects will I tempt you with in the future?) This time, I hope to tell you a little more about how these prints work together. Or at least the way I have convinced myself they work together. Your mileage may vary.
The all-new, all-visually balanced version of The Home Economy.
First off, the duck. Last time I talked about this one I lamented how I had cleared away too much of the block and it didn’t fit with the companion piece I did for it and that I would need to cut a plug for the block. Well, here’s how it worked out. I dropped in a Muscovy duck. A BIG Muscovy duck. See, in addition to keeping chickens, I’m pretty fond of my small flock of Muscovies. Like the chickens, they are for eggs and meat. But I love them! I thought the ducks needed a representative in my printmaking.
But what are they about? I see my artwork as a kind of conversation. I’m speaking to you and to myself in all of my work. In these pieces the characters (my wife and I) are speaking to each other in a sort of sidelong way. We’re having our thoughts and keeping them to ourselves, but still they are juxtaposed visually so that we have to compare the content of the thoughts. (I believe my wife is thinking while I am speaking.) Either way there is conflict in these prints; literal conflict between animals on the right hand side and figurative conflict on the left. There are wild and domestic animals, work to be done at home in the form of chores, work to be done away from home in the form of artwork, different people, different perspectives, different priorities. The Home Economy is about synthesizing all of them. It’s a dynamic project and it is in constant flux with hundreds of moving parts.
There’s more going on here, but I thought that would give you a little to go on. But this is artwork, not an essay. Look at it with your eyes and your mind.
And for your edifiaction here’s a very short video of feather cutting:
WHY ST. LUKE'S ATTIC?
