Easter flocks

This isn’t the first Easter season Michael and I have collaborated on wings as an art expression for a "fresh start". Years ago, in 2009, we worked our first collaboration, a job for over the alter of the Poughkeepsie First Congregational Church, the Dove of New Life.

This Easter Michael helped me install a flock of birds on the wall above my studio painting board. He spotted the ladder, (though many times I saw him taking pictures instead). The birds are simple black silhouettes that can at times look like keyhole punctures in the surface. They symbolize freedom and flights of fancy while they play formally with the abstract markings of the roughly painted cinderblock wall.

Working with the height of the warehouse ceiling is a new sensation for me and there was a desire to interact with it, build a bridge up to it, and intentionally acknowledge the space.

In Indian traditions and others, birds carry messages and prayers up to heaven. Easter (Ostara or Eostre), is a day for the pagan festival of eggs, bunnies, and new beginnings and the Christian celebration of the miracle of Christ's resurrection. The Holy Ghost, the spirit of Life, is most often symbolized as a white dove. I put an image of one at the edge of the flock, on the wall, in honor of this holy day and my faith in God, the resurrection, and new beginnings.