A New Earth (1986-1987)

Births of sons in 1980 and 1985 called for the artist to respond. This was for them. Not a portraitist, per se, I was already observing transformation in Nature, eventually pursuing it as a metaphor for personal growth and change, so, in “A New Earth” (1986-87) I would use the visages of my wife and children as symbols in my retelling of the emergence of Worlds, while at the same time reporting the local reality as a dutiful husband-father-citizen. What issued forth was a tribute in acrylic and mixed media on canvas to the One who maketh and remaketh new creatures for a New Earth, acted out with real birth pangs and grace by Deborah Wyatt Funderburk, with supporting cast Thomas Wyatt and Gerald Jackson.