Still Life Project: The Enduring Book

When I was very young I would refuse to eat unless my mother read to me. A meal was a drawn-out affair, one spoonful per page of a large-print childrens' book. Even then, I was captivated by the wonders in books. As an adolescent, books were reliable companions in a world where human relationships seemed fraught with pitfalls. I could escape and get lost in a world that offered something not found in real life.

Later I became a rural resident of Vermont and embarked on practical projects. I found there was a gulf between an idea and its real world execution. Books came to the rescue - practical books filled with the voices of experienced mentors, dispensing advice on all manner of necessary skills. I would pore over them for hours at a time.

This body of work is a homage to books and the imagined or practical worlds that reside between their covers.

Still life, globes, atlas — “Worlds Apart”

Still life, paper skull ,wood skull, animal skull, book on skulls, books — “Four Skulls”

Still life, large clam shell, book on shells, Ernst Haeckel — “The Old One”

Still life, antique bottles, old glass bottle, book — “Glass Before Glass”

Still life, shells, cupcake, geometry instruments, protractors, square, pair of compasses, book, Archimedes on Spirals — “The Perfect Spiral”

Landscape , lake shore, lake Champlain, book in bottle — “Castaway”

Still life, wire spectacles, magnifying glass, lenses, fake eye, glass eye, peacock feather, anatomy book — “A Second Look”

Still life, hand holding crystal ball, book on Escher art, art book — “Homage to Escher”

Still life, geometric forms, pyramid, cube, cylinder, sphere, wooden blocks, geometry book, shadows — “Geometry in the Afternoon”

Still life, lady portrait painting, peonies, feather, skull, pearls, art history book — “Impermanence”

Still life, nature still life, stag beetle, book on insects — “Flight of Fancy”

Chicken, nest, egg, book of egg illustrations — “Or the Egg”

Nature still life, botanical still life, mushroom, coral fungus, wild mushrooms, book — “Coral Fungus”

Nature still life, feathers, book on birds — “They Fall in Silence”

Nature still life, botanical still life, mushroom, wild mushrooms, lens and book — “Twilight’s Fruit”

Landscape, book on Magritte, surrealism — “Homage”

Food still life, small game carcass, book, meat cleaver — “The Anatomy of Meat”

Botanical art, still life, diseased fruit, leaves, book on Plant Pathology — “The Afflictions”

Food still life, pomegranate, juicy, cut fruit, knife, red glass vase, book — “Spilled the Juice”

Nautical still life, bathtub, model ship, book, ship in storm etching — “Fantastic Voyage”

Still life, science, mechanics, laws of mechanics, book, steel spring — “Hooke’s Law”

Still life, book, succulent, uprooted, houseplant — “Ejected”

Still life, old clocks, timepiece, depiction of time, grim reaper, book — “Out of Time”

Still life, scissors, chicken feathers, book — “Grounded”

Still life, book on Edison, lamp bulbs, history of electric lighting — “Remember Edison”