A print by Willie Birch from P5forNOLA.
Wildflowers in the Artist’s Backyard, 2009/2020
Print, 11 x 14 inches, Edition of 54+2 AP
Willie Birch is best known for his large-scale grisaille charcoal drawings that feature everyday scenes and settings in New Orleans. The works have an arresting graphic quality and capture the dynamism, tenderness, ritual, and quotidian aspects that define life in the city; each work revels in details while hinting at a larger cosmology.
In this drawing, abundant flora weaves through a chain-link fence. It is dark and densely rendered, and despite the tightly cropped framing of the image it is replete with symbolism and nuance, from the diamond pattern of the fence to the careful detailing of each plant species.
