Discovery

Remnants of a Life

January 2021
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From a deer skeleton found 30 years ago

30 years ago I found a deer skeleton in our backyard. I cleaned the bones and kept them (because?). This painting is based on a still life I created from these bones. 2020 has been a challenging year for everyone, and then my 98 year old dad died, so I've been thinking about what constitutes a remnant of a life. In this case it was the deer bones, but I've been finding myself drawn to dried, dead flowers and leaves that have dropped from trees and of course my own mortality.

Read more from June Yokell

The subject of my work comes from things I’ve seen, using nature as the starting point. Sometimes I stay with the initial impulse but other times if I allow myself to keep looking and let thoughts or memories come up, and the work winds up being quite different than where I started. I like working in this combined way as it becomes a treasure hunt-following the clues until I arrive, somewhere. Most of my work is in oils or acrylics. My work is informed by artists who might slip something mysterious or dreamy into them. I hope that my work is able to get the viewer to keep thinking about the work, keep wanting to look at it even if they don’t know why.

June Yokell

Pinole, California

Remnants of a Life