When I saw that the Bennington Museum was asking people to make posters for their gate, I thought, I'd like to, but a poster? I don't make posters. I started mulling it over how I might do this in a way that made sense to me, and I decided that making a sign sounded like fun. There were plenty of plywood scraps in our basement, so I took a smallish one and gessoed one side. After the first coat of gesso, I embedded some papers in it: several pieces of a grocery list, the house/boat drawing that I cut out of an old drawing, and the red "bowl." My grocery visits have been symbolic---the trips are the only reason that I've gone out in public, so they've been simultaneously stressful and exhilarating. The houses are obvious symbols. I scratched the house shapes into the drying gesso and then painted the whole thing with a thin layer of blue paint. I kept working in to the background, pushing and pulling the components until I felt like it was finished.
Then, I added the words. For me, the high points of this whole quarantine experience have been the kindnesses that I've tried to show to others, and that I've received in return. I picture all of us as vessels, ready to be filled with other's kindnesses.
This week I'll drop off the sign at the museum. It's been covered thoroughly in polyurethane to water and weather proof it, so I hope it lasts for people to enjoy it.
(An image of playing with the words in my sketchbook)