JEANETTE COLE:
CAT’S CRADLE

February 26 - March 27
Reception; Sunday, February 26, 2 PM - 4 PM

ARTIST STATEMENT
Cat’s Cradle—works on paper

The works on paper in this exhibition represent my desire and hope for a place called “home.”  Based on imagery from a robe made in West Africa made by strip weaving and given to my father by his co-workers upon his departure after 15 years of missionary and literacy work, and inherited by me on his passing, I traced the seams holding the fabric strips together and used that to form the structure of these paintings.  I discovered, embedded in them, a “Jacob’s ladder.”  In the Old Testament Jacob laid his head on a stone and dreamt he saw angels climbing up and down, and he was promised that the land beneath him would be his home.  The desire to belong to somewhere, to a place, motivates this work.

The title, Cat’s Cradle, is given to all my painting accomplished over the three years 2011-2013.  It comes from the child’s game in which two people work with a string loop to form elaborate, intricate patterns, and which frequently, through missteps become hopelessly tangled and the game starts over.