Reporting America's Story

  The general description of this art work is in the blog post below.   I have been asked to talk about each canvas and will start with the top row which deals with women's violence against children.  These are ugly stories.  They are very unsettling.  You may or may not want to read them.  I really don't know if I want to retell them.  I created this work to clear all these visions out of my head.   I also find it a bit ironic to be retelling the telling and retelling.....

The first canvas, top left, was the first work.  It is visually dark and heavy due to the weight of the story, the beginning of the process:
   A woman, who had been previously convicted of child abuse and served eight years in prison, after setting her 8 month old daughter's diaper on fire with the head of a burning mop, became pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy.  He was 3 months old when she stuffed him into her mother's washing machine and set fire to the house, a fire that resulted in the death of her son.
   This story lingered in the newspaper day after day until the woman was convicted of her son's death.  There were photos of her, photos of her son.  It became incredibly depressing to open the paper and see more of this.  


   Tomorrow,  the second canvas which became national headline news, and a story you will remember.