The Queen

For their garden chessboard, Christopher and John Thomas asked me to make a queen similar in stature and passion to Eva Per`on. The Queen began with photos of Eva and evolved into the only African royal matriarchal tribal lineage; the Queen of the Limpopo Province in South Africa, Queen Makobo Modjadji, who reigned Limpopo when this sculpture was made. To amalgamate imagery that locates everyday nature with royalty, she is draped in a royal leopard skin collar while her dress references the decorative borders of St. Catherine’s medieval European Book of Hours.  The Queen glances back while striding forward, linking the past with the present; departure and arrival, earth to stone.