Ancestors

The first piece in this series was created in 1966 in Paris. I could not afford the paint to create large works on canvas. Walking through a public park, I hit upon the idea of tying small (and free-for-the-taking) twigs onto unprimed canvas. After stitching hundreds of them into long, multiple rows, they began to suggest the French approach to designing with trees. This was my first work in fiber.  

I expanded on my original approach in revisiting the format in 2014, using the twigs remaining from Paris — stored for more than 40 years — together with newly harvested twigs from my garden in Kansas City. 

Each one of these artworks vary between 5ft by 9ft and 5ft by 7ft.