BARBARA ROMAIN

The first of the Elements, and the one made of real leaves.
Earth: Burrow is built on a single circle drawn from edge to edge. Into the paint she pressed the thing itself — leaves, roots, branches — so the botany across the surface is printed rather than drawn, exact in a way no hand could manage.
Over and around it, in stencilled capitals: DUST 2 DUST. ASHES 2 ASHES. BACK 2 CENTER. DIG IT. MOTHER EARTH. And BROWN IS THE NEW BLACK, which is a joke and a colour theory and a statement about soil, all at once.
Virgo, Capricorn and Taurus — the three earth signs — are set into the field, their glyphs scattered like seed.
She began here. This is the canvas that started a series she would spend five years finishing.
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 2005.