Monday, February 28, 2011

A Great Deliverance

A Great Deliverance 18x24"

Six long years, during which not only the military was in conflict, but the civilians of England, France and other countries across the world faced daily danger as well. Six long years that came to an end in Europe on May 8, 1945. V-E DAY!

I got the idea of using a French style bulletin board theme for the piece. The canvas was painted with Titanium Ecru and then spattered with ultramarine blue and quinacridone crimson. The ribbons were stapled on in diagonal patterns. I printed out vintage photos of the day's celebrations from London, New York and Paris. These, along with Xerox copies of newspaper headlines, were glued to the canvas under the ribbons.

A ribbon rosette topped with a period florin (2 shilling piece) anchors the center of the board.

The title is taken from King George VI's speech that day; "Today we give thanks to Almighty God for a great deliverance. Speaking from our Empire's oldest capital city, war-battered but never for one moment daunted or dismayed, speaking from London, I ask you to join with me in that act of thanksgiving."

1 comment:

  1. Very thoughtfully done, Erin. A powerful collage about those unimaginably horrific years. You've done quite a series.

    ReplyDelete