Iconography:
the visual images and symbols used in a work of art or the study or interpretation of these.
My life’s story is defined by specific icons that appear in my works on paper and oil paintings. Butterflies, PA German Folk Art, garden tools, moons, and other flora and fauna are emblematic of loved ones, places and memories that I immortalize through painting, collaging and drawing. I will also note, that the majority of the pigments I make my works out of come from places I’ve known and hold dear to me.
I started working at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the summer of 2018, which introduced me to their robust collection of PA German Folk Art for the first time. Works on paper, furniture and ceramics covered in motifs of birds, flowers, and animals became a source of inspiration for me. My paternal grandmother - the only grandparent I was able to know - was PA German. I’ll share more about her one day. It took me 25 years to realize how these objects and images could give me access to my familial history, and how to honor the land and the people I love best. A few of my icons and their meanings are listed below. I found writing about each icon to be incredibly insightful.
CRESCENT MOON:
Mother
My Mom always brings up the moon when we text or talk over the phone. If there’s a full moon, a pink moon or a super moon, you better believe I know about it. We share the same moon in our separate places, and the moon collapses the distance between us. The moon appears in PA German Folk as a signifier of the seasons.
Equal to the sun, the moon moves life forward.
BUTTERFLY:
Father
Since I could remember, my Dad has always loved butterflies. His garden shed is covered in ceramic and metal decorations of all sorts. Pin-wheeled butterflies spin in the flowerbeds alongside my parents house every summer. As a child, my dad, niece and grandmother would help me collect dead monarch butterfly wings, next to her butterfly bush. They would fall prey to praying mantises. Their yellow and orange wings would be my treasures.
The butterfly is the pollinator and life-bringer.
TROUT and CREEK
Harry
My second father; the neighbor across the street. The most tragic loss in my life.
Harry loved to swim. In my childhood summers, I would run down to the creek with my niece Sarah to find Harry diving off of the singing bridge into the water. He would float above the trout, minnows and crayfish. He would disappear in and out of the sunlight and the tree shade as he paddled alongside the current. I would like to think the creek and its inhabitants remember him as I do.
Fish act as spirits in my work.
SUNFLOWER
Earth - Myself
A sunflower is hard to miss. They are abundant with life. They die beautifully, after every single seed is given back to the earth. The sunflower is me. It is the mother and the daughter. It blossoms and burns. It is the anxiety I feel every single day about the state of the world.
It is the hope of better days and the life I hope to bring forth in due time.