I live in the forest where a complex lace of branches and roots surrounds us. I feel as if my presence here in our home made from wood is just a tiny node of a greater mind. The scientist Suzanne Simard who studies the networks of roots in forests has corroborated my intuitions. She’s discovered that the roots are connected by a far reaching web of mycorrhizal fungi, an underground mind, and support system. This series which includes a bronze outdoor piece, paintings, prints and drawings, addresses the mind and memory of the forest. Upcoming exhibition of this work at the Lyman Allyn Museum, June to October, 2021. 

The making of these woodland sculptures begins by walking and scavenging near my home in Southern Rhode Island, adjacent to the Narragansett Indian Reservation. Natural elements call my attention: rocks, roots, fungi, branches and logs. I drag them back to my studio and let them sit. Over time these natural artifacts will reveal fragments of a lost or new story, the insect hollowed interior of a maple suggests a womb, or a witch hazel branch with gnarly projections becomes a hand. I walk past the spring growth on blueberry bushes- blood red branches– and I imagine a piece about the heart of nature.

Flores first returned to Cuba in 2002. Forty years had passed since she and her family arrived in the US as political refugees in 1962. The pilgrimage had a profound and defining impact on her sense of identity and vision as an artist. The resulting sculptural installation entitled, Cuba Journal, is multi-layered with political, cultural and personal imagery. Flores has chosen to convey complex themes such as her own family’s exile, Cuba’s history and Castro’s dictatorship in a deceivingly simple folk art style that includes sculptural toys, puppets and furniture. Text, music and video elements are woven into this participatory installation. All of the work is made out of found and recycled materials as a tribute to the creativity and resourcefulness that she witnessed on the island.

“My family’s heirlooms and mementos were all swept away by the Cuban revolution…I began to fill this void by creating sculptures that suggested layers of my lost history”.This series of works including sculptures, paintings and texts examines the history of Spanish colonization, sugar, and the Cuban revolution, often in the context of the artist’s own family history. This exhibition builds on the investigations begun in the earlier series entitled Cuba Journal. see reviews:

A Profound Sense of Place
The Untold and Erased Histories of Cuba’s Past
Ana Flores
The Island draws me
Newport Art Museum
November 2012