This Republic of Suffering

This new series is inspired in great part by Drew Gilpin Faust’s book ‘This Republic of Suffering:Death and the American Civil War’ (Vintage 2008). The diptych of a cadaver tomb symbolizing the Prentiss brothers, killed on opposing sides at the siege of Petersburg, was begun as part of an artist residency at the Gibbes museum in Charleston. It focused on a detail from Faust’s book- that soldiers carried tintypes in battle, hoping that, should they be mortally wounded, they might have to arrange their family around them, in a recreation of the ‘good death’ at home.

The Homespun Dress Oil on canvas 48×72ā€
Work in Progress

Women at War

The images below are not unrelated to the ballad series. They explore the divisions still prevalent in social attitudes across the country.

The Vigil Oil on canvas 2019
The Aftermath Oil on canvas 2019