Growing up in a Polish/Ukrainian community south of Chicago in the
1950s I was continuously fascinated with the culture and folk art of
lawn care and related decoration. Birdbaths, pink flamingos, mirror
globes, whirligigs, plastic deer, lawn jockeys, birdhouses, statues of
various saints, and bathtub Madonnas infused the front and backyards of
my neighborhood with an atmosphere of the fantastic and the surreal. The
backyard Madonnas were especially fascinating, as they seemed
religiously serious, fantastically humorous, or surrealistically
bizarre, depending on the other objects around it, the weather, or
whatever else was going on in the yard (barbeque parties, lawn mowing,
snow ball fights, a game of horseshoes, or croquet).
Between 1975 and 1987, I photographed a number of these Madonna
environments in my old neighborhood and throughout the Midwest. I
printed them to 16"x 20" on Kodak Polycontrast N surface paper, and hand
colored them with Marshall's Photo Oils. There are over 100 prints in
this ongoing series.
