Milan Italy, Gallaria Marella Exhibition
, (2008)BATTLES, 1000 HAND PAINTED RAINBOWS: The rainbows were painted with children’s watercolor sets, on standard 8.5 x 11 paper. While I was growing up in California, in the 1970’s rainbows were a common visual icon. In this sense the rainbow is a sentimentalreminder of that time; vaguely representing positivity, beauty, nature, magic, but all reduced to a cliché. In reality, rainbows happen when light waves hit water particles in the air at just the right angle, refracting the wave into its separate colors, the colors which are always there but we do not see. In another 70’s California reality, the rainbow was becoming the symbol for Gay pride. Gilbert Baker created the first rainbow flag by hand, using fabrics he dyed for the 1977 San Francisco Gay Pride parade. During this time, my father was hiding his gayness from our family, not coming out of the closet until 1999. When he did come out, he was not aware that the rainbow flag represented Gay Pride.
DIFFICULT TIMES: 5.75”x 8” booklet. A self-portrait in the form of a list of every book I own concerning spirituality. The booklets were presented as a free take-a-way at the gallery.
