I paint objects as portraits of the people I care about: Nick's drums, Gladys' ladder, Derek's trombone, Joseph's violin. The pitcher is my great aunt's, found abandoned in her garage in Maine. The shovels are my brother Al's. I had a season of painting my father's wrenches and our inherited hand-made tools and that series led to musical instruments: another kind of tooI. I love the complexity and precision of musical instruments, their form dictated by wavelengths of sound and the size of hands. This is my mother's wheelbarrow reflecting the sky and containing the leaves she watched fall.

kay bradner things