Birdcage 1 is a faux collage—an abstract piece with tromp l’oeil torn paper edges that were painted and drawn by hand (no digital art for me). The black and red triangle on the center right is impossibly in front and in back of the torn pieces.

 

The ribs of a birdcage enclose a creature that was meant to fly, reminding me of how our bodies are a temporary cell for our spirit. In Birdcage 3, the cage is intact, while this paper cage has been torn apart in a frustrated search for freedom and a yearning for where the spirit resides.

 

“… this group show [Symbols from the Psyche: Exploring the Unconscious] did have a few pieces that leaped out of the void. Marla Kelly’s [Loss] two images of “normal” birdcages led to a hybrid cage. In the piece, Birdcage 1, the psyche has begun to dredge up other material as it takes the cage apart—using it as fodder while it, the psyche, grazes among other forms. There is also evidence of an inchoate energy that can no longer hold the outsides of the cage away from the insides. Or is it vice versa?” –Art Critic Diane Armitage, THE, Santa Fe’s Monthly Magazine of the Arts.

 

Click here to see Birdcage 3.