18.5×17.5 inches
Oil on Linen
Oak Flush Frame

This still life was inspired by Giovanni Bellini's Madonna and Child. I arranged fabrics and objects from my contemporary life into a similar compositional structure, with bowls, cups, and a spool of twine standing in for the Madonna and Child.

The blue fabric is the same color as the blue robe worn by the Virgin Mary, and the red cloth of honor sits behind the figures in both paintings. For the distant blue sky on the left I used a kitchen sponge, waterglass, and a string of blue beads on a pipe cleaner.

The sacred and the domestic have always lived close together.