Angels

I made these paintings in the summer of 2008, after a favorite mentor, Scott Noel, suggested that they would get better after I made twenty or thirty of them. It was very liberating to go to Laurel Hill Cemetery every afternoon and paint the same subject. Rather than getting tired of this statue, I learned more and more about why I found her so compelling.

I love this angel because of her contradictions: she is made of stone but taking off to fly, impermanent but immortal. She is part of her surroundings, and separate from them. She is vulnerable with her broken arm, but still about to soar into the sky.