VICKIE BYRON

The Cemetery Series was based on the monumental burial grounds in Queens, whose funerary statues inspired a progression of formal inventions on canvas and paper. The figures are surprisingly varied in their derivation from ancient, mythological, and religious sources—guardians, soldiers, monks, cherubs, birds, angels—embodying human ideals as well as vanity, isolation, and stereotype. Idealized woman is on a pedestal, iconic man draws a concrete sword, and granite hands offer futile prayers. The portrayed figures vacillate between stone and flesh, emphasizing the transient nature of life. Circular compositions represent life’s evolutionary cycle, and rhythmic patterns of ivy and palm suggest victory over physical death. Damaged angels with missing parts, lost and broken, are metaphors for loss and the passing of time.