Sweet Moral Blossom
2004
Plaster and gesso over aluminum wireform
24x32x22
This piece was created for a show Exposing Scarlet, a response to the Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne. Pearl, the child born out of wedlock, was referred to as the Sweet Moral Blossom. It is innocence born of passion. The white plaster is smooth and rounded and as in the paintings of Georgia O'Keefe, cannot help but bring to mind the supple folds of the female genitalia. Projecting from inside of the flower are four bulges, suggestive of the four primary characters of the novel, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, Hester, and Pearl. There is an interconnected sexuality here, a “sin” that has brought together these participants in the story.