Flowering City

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Panel for Enterprise Bank community mural project
oil/canvas collage, 15"x33"

In its mission statement, Enterprise Bank uses the verb “create”. For a leading supporter of a community that draws and sustains artists, this word is especially important. We who create in order to live in and understand our world find in Enterprise Bank a strong link to the ways our endeavors are woven into the community.

My contribution to the Enterprise Bank Mural Project is a panel titled The Flowering City. Flowers and urban images have long been dominant themes in my work, so I found this subject to be particularly fitting. The intersection of nature with manmade urban structures sparks a dynamic of vitality that underscores the “vibrant, prosperous communities” of Enterprise Bank’s mission statement conclusion.  Every healthy community recognizes the role of beauty and nature in its inhabitants’ quality of life – both inner and outer – without which material prosperity is meaningless.

The use of collaged painting on canvas was another apt choice for me. I have worked increasingly with collage to develop a more Modernist approach to my paintings, using color to embark on an adventure in determining form.  Public murals, historically colorful and characterized by strong shapes and fractured space, make me think of collage. Quilts have similar qualities, and I associate them with the textile history of the region served by Enterprise Bank. The influence of murals and quilts, combined with my love of painting, were primary considerations in creating The Flowering City, a mixed bouquet as varied as the people who make up our community.

  – Meredith Fife Day