2009
June
2009
Acrylic on linen
60 x 96
"...What might the artist intend, for instance, by the five stiffly posed figures in front of a narrow cottage in 'June,' 2009, two of them inside a birchbark canoe, the others on the lawn? Their diverse garb somewhere between that of Civil War troops and a high school marching band, the unsmiling men stare ahead or askance; one peers through a small telescope. Another in a cockaded hat and tasseled sash sits on the grass in the attitude of the naked lady in Manet’s 'Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe,' 1862–63, a parrot perched on his shoulder and another bird on his finger. A pair of dodos peck at blue and red berries behind a jeweled crown and scepter, while a skull rests between two enigmatic piles of stacked rocks. Certainly, the juxtaposition of extinct birds, men in military finery, and imperial accoutrements calls to mind some sort of cautionary tale about overweening pride and the history of colonialism (did I mention that fire consumes a church in the far distance?), but the story is subsumed by the scene’s oddness and the artist’s obsessive detailing of every blade of grass, every feather, and the wood of the canoe and the unstrung guitar that lies before it."
Joseph R. Wolin, ArtForum Picks, 20 April 2009
