This print is from a series, Aquilegia/Columbine: Hawk/Dove, I began as the world was listening to issues in Ferguson and simultaneous conflict in Israel and Palestine. These flowers, whose various names refer both to hawk/war and dove/peace, became layered lamentations in response to the chaos in the world. By using the print process, a printmaker can layer ink and images creating a complex surface that yields different perspectives on the same form and become metaphors about people, communities, and situations. Some of these images are in the tradition of 19th-century nature printing in which the horticultural subject is used to print from or create impressions in the matrix.
I am grateful to all the art professors at Michigan but particularly Frank Cassara, who gave me expert training as an intaglio printmaker and Wendel Heers, who nurtured my interest in teaching.
