Snake with Flowers 2024

For almost two years now, I haven't really been making images.  I've been trying to find homes for my work, and also have been preparing for a retrospective exhibit at MOPA, now part of the San Diego Museum of Art( StoryTeller: Work by Holly Roberts ).  In March, I created a temporary studio in Austin, Texas, while staying there to spend time with our daughter and her young family. While there, I painted, and tried not to make too big a mess since my workspace was in the living room of the small condo we were staying in.  When we returned to New Mexico, using a panel I had painted a few years ago, I married a photograph I had taken of a small garden snake with the painting--which perfectly flowed with the rhythm of the painted surface. The flowers added to the ominous presence of the snake(walking in your garden and you discover much to your surprise a snake!), but at the same time, a beautiful juxtaposition of the two.  As I worked, I remembered just how hard it was to get an image to work, and how completely I was taken over by making the piece.  After working for six hours straight, I was tired, hungry, and what's more, had lost the cut out snake somewhere in the mess of my studio.  I found it the next morning, and, pleased, was finally able to complete the image.