MON HIVER

“*Snow was falling, so much like stars filling the dark trees that one could easily imagine its reason for being was nothing more than prettiness*.” -Mary Oliver

S’VINTER

With a single word - Sholom Aleichem described it all.
It’s comfort.
It’s warmth.
It’s safety.
It’s home.
As the season stretches from November thru May - it’s where I live half my year. Half my life.
It’s all too familiar.
It’s much too long.
It’s cold…and it’s dark.
It’s monochrome and colorless…and yet - within it all there is beauty and color and light.

As I began this next in my ongoing explorations into creating 3-dimensions from my 2-dimensional photographic art - I asked myself how it is I might share this season that I love?

Early darkness with snow falling….lit by the occasional passing moon.
The landscape of evergreen cloaked in white. The last of the summer berries. The remaining apples still clinging to their trees.
The bare branches. The ground - reflecting only the lack of color.

It’s walking in the quiet of the trees…between the snowflakes falling…in the blanket of silence.

How might I capture the lightness…the transparency…the space? How might I express the magic?

Beginning - again - with the photograph. The evidence that this IS what it is. I aimed to capture it all. Its darkness. It’s light. Its monochrome. And - it’s technicolor.

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PARTS AND PIECES

Printing on both sides of the paper.
Cutting and folding and sewing. Triangular shapes formed into hexagons.
Reminiscent of snowflakes…although in this work - they are all the same.

Again - the process is quiet…meditative…repetitive.
The coming together - always a surprise.

SHAPE AND FORM

What became apparent - as I worked - was a lack of white space. What was missing was the walk in between the trees…the space between the falling flakes of snow…the silence.
And so - I formed and shaped them in such a way as to feel that emptiness…that quiet…the lack in between the plenty.

C’EST l’HIVER

It’s snow falling. Burying all of our dirty…ugly…unmentionable thoughts and wrongdoings. Whitening….brightening….lightening… making them pure and whole again.

IT’S WINTER

Cold. Frosty. Hibernal. Dormant. A season that awaits that coming of spring - its warmth…its laughter…its light…its new life.

S’VINTER

It’s life in an eastern European shtetl. It’s wrapping oneself up in warm coats and rags. It’s a hard life….but one that is filled with comforting repetition…ritual…meaning.
It’s joy. It’s sorrow. It’s fear. It’s victory and it’s defeat.
It’s survival.