retrospective page 10

right
big tree.

It stands so tall. 185 feet, referred to as the big tree, a giant Douglas Fir. For over a hundred years it has stood like a sentry over my family home.

It was there for my father, it was there for his father and it was there for his father. We all climbed it at least once.
I am the last. No one will climb the big tree again.

buttercup
 

big tree, 2013, 66 x 29 x 10
 

left:
a little dress lays on the floor
a figure marked upon the door
dresses floating in the air

stitches stitch the dusty lair
stitches stitch her dusty hair

"Calkins is no seamstress, for his flat dresses are symbols, not garments.
Any visible needlework resembles Frankenstein stitches, and threads hang from his seams. No gussets or darts accommodate the three dimensional form."

Rebecca Albiani, Artweek, 2000

antonia, 2013, 45 x 18
 

(commission) 2012,  53 x 16
 

birdgirl

A ghost of aviation
She was swallowed by the sky
Or by the sea, like me she had a dream to fly
Like Icarus ascending
On beautiful foolish arms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm
-joni mitchell

blueberry, 2012, 42 x 15
 

amelia, 2008, 43 x 33
 

"As flat and darkened as pressed flowers, they [the dresses] hang in orderly lines that enhance their shaker simplicity, rustic hues and artifact appeal."

Judy Wagonfeld,
Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
Nov 4, 2004

the acrobat’s wife & the acrobat’s wife’s husband
2008, 90 x 21 and 96 x 32
 

himalayan king and queen, 2008, ca 6 ft tall
 

mr ladder’s ascent, 2013, 67 x 30
mrs ladder’s decent, ,67 x 30

dream date, 2006, ca 38 x 30