NINE CHILDREN

This series showcases Patricia’s trademark combination of diverse materials, a set of nine mixed media encaustic pieces on panel. She combines layers of wax, an array of beads, caulking, and pulp-painted, hand-made paper on plexi-glass. This work, a response to the price we are willing to (make others) pay to achieve our military goals, addresses '“collateral damage” from US bombing of Afghanistan.

Nine Children is a series of pieces dedicated to nine Afghanistan children inadvertently killed by US collateral damage. A 500 lb bomb was dropped the wrong site, a house in which stayed nine children and their babysitter.

Each piece has parts of the international news account written onto it. On the back is a circular piece of handmade paper, representing the passing of the child’s physical body.

A circular shape of roping adorns each front, symbolic of the child’s soul and brightly tinted the colors of Afghan children’s kites. Beading enwraps each piece, like prayer beads used all over the world to pray for and honor the dead. All works are 17”W x 12”H x 1”D.