Oil-Constructions

Oil-Constructions were born out of my desire to add three-dimensions to Oil Paintings. My first moves toward it was adding the twisting forms of willow branches wrapped in bands of threads to the surface of the paintings as seen in "Man in the Fig Tree" above. I had already added papers. In "Myrtle for Thistle-Cypress for Thorns" I had added willow wrapped in threads as well as papers, and then, I constructed the thorns in brown paper, a material I had already been doing sculpture with for years. This was the material I had been searching for to break the bounds of two-dimensions!

In Psalm 1, I built several rocks individually with brown paper and knew I had a new product on my hands. Oil-Constructions were born.  In Mountain Song I braided together brown paper construction with my love of the human form and created the true three-dimensionality I had been seeking.

True Oil-Constructions are created with Oil paint. However, I am including the piece "Ancient as the Hills" because all the forms were created with brown paper. Though it is colored with papers, there are only a few shapes that are cut with a blade as I do in my Paper-Cutsructions.  And finally, the "Word Became Flesh 3" is a true Oil-Construction, marrying Oil paint and building up the three-dimensional areas with brown paper.