There’s a yellow house on Union Street in Brooklyn that I pass by each day on the way to my studio. It’s a slender golden anomaly sandwiched between the brownstones. A single maple tree grows in front of it. As the seasons change, it morphs from skeletal branches to a towering mass of purplish leaves.

I recently returned to oil painting after decades of working on paper, hoping to unlock the luminosity peculiar to the medium. The yellow house became my touchstone, its moods and rhythms serving as a gauge for my exploration.

I hope that these paintings "situate" the viewer, conveying the sense of both isolation and intimacy inherent in urban living. I animate that which seems static, choosing scenes and objects which rely on our emotional investment in order to live, not simply be observed.

In my dress collages I assemble salvaged elements, some with racial and historical over-tones, into the ultimate female article. These "animae" feel charmed, as do my dolls and other personal objects. They speak to our desire to surmount what we inherit, to fuse the surreal and the ordinary.

—JoAnne McFarland

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		I go to my studio every day, seven days a week. A mile and a half from my home, I use the walk to look around, see what’s happening. Most of my work is thinking. I work in short bursts between lengthy periods of gestation, pushing at a painting or a poem until it feels right. That’s such a cliche, but at some point the piece is going to look back at you, and if it feels like part of an ongoing romance, it’s done. —JoAnne McFarland

UMÜVME: CLASSIC AND CONTEMPORARY POETRY TRACKS Listen to this February 2010 podcast featuring JoAnne McFarland.
		"Fire" from FOSSIL FUEL
		"Echo" from FOSSIL FUEL
		"Lot's Wife" from FOSSIL FUEL
		"Lovenesse's Lament" from THE GLASSBLOWER'S TALE
		"Yeast" from FOSSIL FUEL
		"Solar Eclipse" from FOSSIL FUEL
"Echo," "Lot's Wife" and "Lovenesse's Lament" readings with Schuyler Grant.