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It Has Always Been This Way

𝘐𝘵 𝘏𝘢𝘴 𝘈𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘉𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘞𝘢𝘺 by Heather Lee Birdsong, 2020, gouache on paper, 24 x 18 1/8 inches.⁣ Photos by Mario Gallucci. ⁣ This painting is about the human tendency to see existing systems as unchangeable, even though history tells us that’s rarely true. That faulty belief is often used as a crutch and a bludgeon to defer responsibility and silence those who seek to address wrongs. The sentiment feels even more significant in the midst of a pandemic (which is still not actually over, despite most people and institutions meant to protect us deciding to feign ignorance) and powerful demonstrations confronting the effects of racism in policing.⁣ ⁣ The plants that appear in the foreground—California fan palm, leafy spurge, Canada thistle, oleander, pampas grass and tree tobacco—are all invasive to the Mojave desert, the landscape of my childhood. I did not know these familiar species were invasive until after I moved to the Pacific Northwest. The depicted plants also are all in bloom in September, because of course I pursued that kind of temporal logic, when it was totally unnecessary and not meaningful to anyone but me. That’s the artist’s privilege, I suppose.⁣ ⁣ Original version below. I had to unframe and repaint a significant portion of it. I unknowingly used a fugitive pink pigment the first time (read those lightfastness ratings!). I did not document what it looked like faded because it made me feel physically ill. You can see that I did not attempt to repaint the sky—the blue is cooler and brighter-looking in the final version—but I actually wound up with a stronger painting as a result, I think. I also had to pay the framer again to put it all back together properly, so I’m glad I was able to sell the finished piece and see it off to a good home.

⁣

Grandmother’s Woods Smell Like Fire

2022, Flashe on translucent Yupo, 12 x 9 inches. © Heather Lee Birdsong.

Completed painting first, followed by images of the work in progress.

Because the polypropylene substrate is translucent and the paint is flat and opaque, I paint on both sides to play with perception. Stuff on the front feels very sharp and closer, stuff on the back remains kind of quiet and slightly fuzzy. I think about this in relation to the psychological phenomenon of dissociation and feelings of “otherness”. I like to simultaneously use flatness and simulated depth, pushing and pulling at traditional American landscape painting (its cloying Romanticism and problematic history as Manifest Destiny propaganda) and the very literal nature of the work as a flat 2D image.

I learned reverse painting techniques on glass from Paul Missal. It’s a funny thing to do, essentially painting in reverse order, but I take a particular pleasure in the challenge.

This painting will make its public debut at Wavelength Space in Chattanooga, TN in April 2023.