This is the plan for my next tapestry which combines air and fire.

It started out with a memory: when I was a teenager, my father and I were driving through the desert near Phoenix Arizona, and saw multiple lightning bolts on the unobstructed horizon. It is a cool memory from a time when my father and I were close. I did not take a photo but luckily there are plenty of photos of this phenomenon on the internet.

Phoenix Arizona made me think of phoenix the mythological bird. So I thought I could have a big bird in the air with feathers of fire, and have one of the lightning bolts reach it.

Then I thought, why not make it a political piece. Using a photo of a bald eagle, a symbol of the US as part of the inspiration for the phoenix. Many people would agree that there are many parts of the US on fire right now. Sadly my father and I would have very different views on what it would mean for the US to “rise from the ashes.” Toward the end of his life we were estranged with no contact. And while I tried to reach out before he died, but part of me was relieved (though part was sad of course) that he did not answer. It was very complicated. We had very different values. No, it was not just politics that divided us. Any conversation could start sparks flying before I chose to go no contact, no matter how innocent the starting subject might appear.

So this piece is about a memory, politics, and my complicated relationship with my father.

This tapestry is about 9.5” by 7” in size and was woven side-ways on a Mirrix Chloe loom with 12 epi to allow for detail in bird. It took me only two weeks to weave.