Earth Birth 1983

This painting, Earth Birth, hangs in the Brooklyn Museum. It's made from layers of airbrushed acrylic on canvas, and when you look at it, you’re almost seeing it come into being, shifting and emerging through intuition. You can almost sympathize with Chicago, imagining what it must have been like to create this monumental work. The paint is thin, but the texture is thick with meaning. See how the curves and contours of the figure and the landscape meld into one. It's like the land *is* the body, a site of emergence and creation. The cool blues and purples give way to a warmer, more illuminated center, drawing your eye to the heart of the painting. Chicago's work, like that of so many painters, is part of an ongoing conversation, an exchange of ideas across time. It's embodied expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple readings.