HOPE is the Thing with Feathers
Stillwater, ME: Nancy Ruth Leavitt, 2018. Item #10885
14-1/2" x 10-7/8." Numbered 1 of 2 variants, and signed by Leavitt. A full cloth box with recessed manuscript paper label on the front; the box opens into a diptych with batik fabric as a background to both sides. Recessed into the right side is Leavitt's hand-lettered rendering of Dickinson's poem on handmade paper by New England papermaker, Katie MacGregor. Opposite is a collage of hand-cut paper layered into blossoms, feathery leaves, and stems sewn in silk—all of which is in white. Bright and unworn.
Quite a remarkable presentation of the beloved Dickinson poem. A supremely gifted lettering artist, Leavitt's manuscript version of the poem done in white gouache on MacGregor's green paper gives Dickinson's words a lightness that is echoed across the diptych with the white, dimensional blossoms on the rich green, blue, and pink fabric with verdant shapes of flowers and foliage. The hand-cut blossoms with their ethereal stems seem to float on the backdrop. It is a beautiful celebration of that quality that Pandora managed to keep in her box. It seems fitting that Leavitt and Dickinson's "hope" is also held in this box.
Price: $3,000.00