Heather Lee Birdsong, A Doubtful Dream, 2021, gouache on hot-pressed paper, 18 1/8 x 24 inches.
Unlike a lot of things I make, I had no clear vision for this painting at the outset. I spent months tinkering away at it, letting details evolve as they would while I listened to audiobooks of contemporary novels based on old fairy tales, particularly those tangled up in wooded and wild landscapes. I actually “finished” this piece for the first time in winter, but something felt off. I wrapped it up and packed it away with everything else when my partner and I moved just before the end of the year. I finally brought this piece out again last week, and repainted a section of it. Now I know it’s done.
“The forest allows for enchantment and disenchantment, for it is the place where society’s conventions no longer hold true. It is the source of natural right, thus the starting place where social wrongs can be righted.”
– Jack Zipes, The Enchanted Forest of the Brothers Grimm
“In the place of abundant life and constant song Through pores of trees spoke ancient time And how we can know this now These patterns tumble through our minds Refracting themselves through this warm prism And are found projected and manifested In this arching dome Here, we come to pray Thus I have heard, here the inner world rings In memory of what will be And on this night The veil is lifted from the face of a bright inner Sun” Wolves In The Trhone Room
ALT
