Michael A. Pierce

I use familiar visual signs to explore materials, process and identity issues. I typically incorporate energetic drawing marks in oil pastels and graphite, gilding, glitter, various decorative surface treatments, along with text, building layers of meaning in the work. Recently, I’ve been working on a series based on the Unicorn tapestries.

These black rabbits are based on images from those medieval tapestries and came about after reading Larry Ward's new book, America's Racial Karma - An Invitation to Heal. A passage from Ward's poem "When I Became Currency" inspired the creation of these black rabbits: "I touch the sun and am touched by the moonlight, like all beings."