These are 3 very small encaustic collages in a series called Domestic Madonnas. Each one is 5.25 X 7 inches on wood (2010). The source images are from a catalog of early Flemish and Italian painters from the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts. It was in the $1. bin at the Salvation Army Book Shop in downtown Eugene. The Flemish school makes me swoon.
As for the Madonna designation: I have described her very inclusively in the series. In fact, she is motherhood in all its domestic beatitude. The history of art is brimming with hundreds of images of Madonna and child: severe, luminous, and always somewhat downcast. She symbolizes both submission and fortitude. On the contrary, the Domestic Madonnas reflect playfulness, irony, boredom and other quotidian realities of motherhood. I mean, wasn’t Mary the mother of a teenager, too?
You must be logged in to post a comment.