Apollo – My Dad

This is an abstract portrait of my father. The imagery and symbols within relate to my perception of him. He died when I was a young child, so what I have in my mind are shadows of ideas about who he may have been. What I feel about my dad is centered around my belief about his love of the desert - especially the desert southwest, hence the use of the image of Bryce Canyon and the Joshua tree.

Apollo is a Greek god associated with the sun and spring. l used a partial lyric from the Kate Bush song, Cloudbusting (Hounds of Love album -1985) "...your sun's coming out...just saying it could even make it happen.." I was referring to my sun as well as my father's. The blue jays, as with all the birds I use in my work, are about transcendence - emotional and spiritual liberation. I associate the jay with my father for some reason I am not quite sure about yet.

The camp chairs and words "black coffee" and "drive" are about road trips which I strongly associate with my dad. Some of my earliest and only memories of are of family camping trips in our AirStream trailer.