Birch and Manitou

24”x24”

Acrylic and Chainstitch Embroidery on Canvas

The stately birch has appeared in my songs and visual art since I was a kid. Its paper bark, its delicate leaves, its stark white body…it has always enchanted me. This painting was done by memory and dream, not by photograph, so I can’t tell you where exactly along the Lake Michigan shore this is supposed to be, though the presence of South Manitou Island is telling.

I am calling these pieces “paintstitches” as they incorporate both acrylic paint and chainstitch embroidery. I begin with the paint and add chainstitching after nearly all the painting is completed. In these pieces I am interested in centering the experience of the present flora, usually right before or right after sunset/sunrise. I like to image that the main event has either already happened or is about to happen. In both cases, we, the human viewer, are not seeing it. Instead we are watching the flora as they engage with the sky. Was it a good sunset, birch? Are you ready for the sunrise, fern? What will the night bring, yarrow?