Ancestor Tree

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A painting I had done years ago was collecting dust in my daughter's closet. We had both gone on to more interesting and challenging art images--hers for her art collection and mine to create. So, one day she returned it and suggested I might make it into one of the new collages. A friend had given me some wonderful old Chinese tissue prints. The original art had a gathering of family crows in a tree. If a family of crows could gather in an old tree, why not a gathering of ancestors using the almost transparent tissue prints. And so it came to pass that The Ancestor Tree was incorporated into a new myth encouraging the people to honor their history and ancestors.

The center of the flowers came from diamond jewelry displayed in a magazine. The bling became fruiting flowers (nicer than real diamonds in my mind), the crows remained but grew in numbers and took on spotted feathers, the tree flourished with ancient relatives, and people came to honor them and enjoy the beauty of the Ancestor Tree. The story took some twists and turns to arrive at an acceptable conclusion and if you want to read it and see the image enlarged with details you can visit my web site.

The painting was in the collection of artist's works at The gallery at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts, on Bainbridge Island, Washington and sold to a local collector. It has a lovely home. To see more of my work you can also visit their site and request more information.