Bob Burgess

Kimberley Bursic

Artist’s Statement
Jennifer Duncan

Trees Grow Lively on Snowy Fields
Written by Mo Fei, Translated by Steven Haven and Li Yongyi
First stanza

Trees grow lively on snowy fields
Some grey enemy sneaks in
This winter reveals everything
Life comes to know its limits

The winter brought on an increase in isolation due to Covid-19 and the colder temperatures. The world felt strangely tangled and bleak.  We heard daily bad news of social injustice and increasing political strife, and the world continued to lose many people due to the virus.  

The series of paintings I have selected relate to this dark winter and our emergence from it. I often turn to music or poetry in difficult times.  A fresh layer of snow on the forests around me led me to the above poem and some new inspiration.   Criss-crossed branches and fallen trees surrounded by white shapes.   I painted thick layers of paths and tree trucks and branches.  The beautiful calligraphic lettering (translated side by side from Mandarin to English) of Mo Fei’s poem played into some of the interlaced marks and echoed the tangled fallen branches in the snow. 

Artist’s Statement
Pam Frederick

My newest series “It’s in the Cards” is photo-collaged works on paper that feature the occult, palm reading, tarot cards and other mysteries of the universe. 

I have always been interested in the occult and tarot cards. These collaged photos were taken at various palm reading shops in the Washington, DC area and in New Orleans. The storefronts, each with their own unique and compelling signs, add to the overall mystique.  

In 1853 in Britain and America, the “Spiritualist” art movement began. The appeal was its hope of an afterlife and the promise of contact with departed loved ones in an era when death was ever present (just like today’s Covid pandemic). The afterlife was for the souls of everyone, Black or White, rich or poor, baptized or not. 

Al Lipton