Guest Artist: Dixie Brown

Family Portrait © Dixie Brown 2006

In using the symbol of modern war,
I chose to portray bombs in a material
associated with protecting the human body.

This incongruity between image and medium,
between destruction and nurturance
raises consideration of the human cost of war.

A family-sized grouping suggests the lasting
effect of military conflict on several generations.

The ultimate question is “How big is my family?

Dixie Brown

Dixie has been making hand-knit bombs to show in art galleries. She says it's her

...way of illustrating the ironies and incongruities between war and human needs for protection."

She goes on to say,

Recently, I began using the form of a bomb, which is assumed to be hard, destructive, and industrially made. But my materials are soft, comforting, and worked by hand. Such opposite characteristics both can be experienced as protection, depending on where one stands. In addition, a person can experience opposing feelings about the pieces at different times.

You can see Dixie's current installation live and in person if you're near Walnut Creek, California at the Bedford Gallery. She describes the piece,

...a cluster of soft bombs "falls" in the stairwell of the Lesher Center for the Performing Arts.

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