Love Letters as Light as Feathers, 2024 shows a hawk sitting on a silver birch branch which has been inscribed with the initials of lovers. This drawing introduces us to themes which will be continued in Tom Jean Webb’s forthcoming solo exhibition, in particular the balance between the natural world and human interventions and impositions upon it. The hawk may be seen as a symbol of freedom and unharnessed natural beauty. Yet the source photograph for this image was taken in an animal sanctuary where the bird was being nursed back to health. It’s enclosure is temporary while it is reliant upon human kindness for its care and upon its release this brief captivity will be forgotten. We are reminded though by the scarred boughs of the trees, that a thoughtless act even made with the best of intentions can have a lasting impact upon the world around us.
14 x 11 in.
