BILLY RENKLThe Comfort of Crows
THE COMFORTOF CROWS features 52 unique collages Billy Renkl, collage and multimedia artist, made to mirror each essay in his sister Margaret Renkl’s forthcoming book of the same title. Running alongside the essays, these collages offer a parallel depiction of the seasons. In the manuscript Margaret’s yard and neighborhood are profoundly meaningful; in Billy’s analogous path through the year, the meaning Margaret finds in the world is underwritten by its physical beauty.
The collages and collection of essays both share a love for the achingly beautiful world and the life that animates it and a real fear that we've tipped past the point of saving it.The collages are built on top of toned cyanotypes mounted on handmade paper that has been stained one of four colors to correspond with the seasons. In addition to cyanotypes, sheet music, wedding invitations, and a host of other paper ephemera, mostly antique, build a layered portrait of Billy’s collections of paper and Margaret’s collections of backyard experiences.
Of this series Billy says, “the collages braid together three threads that also run through the manuscript: the natural world as a source of curiosity when carefully examined with clear eyes, as a source of astonishment and devotion, and as a model for understanding ourselves in relation to each other and the world.”
The Comfort of Crows (Spiegel & Grau, 2023) is a literary devotional. “Moving through the seasons, what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy at the ongoing pleasures of the natural world and grief at winders that end too soon, at songbirds growing fewer and fewer.”
Billy’s visual elements are culled from a surplus of botanical imagery, collected for their illustrative nature that contrasts with the technicality of vintage maps and manuscripts. He intuitively selects from his surplus of materials selected for their illustrative quality to begin his open-ended process.The birds, for instance, are cut from chromolithographs from The Birds of Pennsylvania published in the 1890s. Many works include watercolor, gouache, ink, or wax pencil, and personal tokens collected throughout Billy’s life. Fall: Week Four (The Last Hummingbird), is a collage consisting mainly of blue imagery from Billy’s wife Susan Bryant cyanotypes, grasslands, a detailed, delicate flower, all grounded on earthy brown paper.
These collages and Billy’s careful decision-making are responses to the tactile qualities of an image or document. Billy’s process combines visual phrases that speak to ambiguous memory and personal connection. “This series is akin to a traditional photo essay, in which details accrue through sustained observation, incrementally building a layered portrait of the subject. Just as in Margaret’s yard, bluebirds come and go through these collages; native plants bud, flower, and go to seed; the seasons cycle along.”
These collages and Billy’s careful decision-making are responses to the tactile qualities of an image or document. Billy’s process combines visual phrases that speak to ambiguous memory and personal connection. “This series is akin to a traditional photo essay, in which details accrue through sustained observation, incrementally building a layered portrait of the subject. Just as in Margaret’s yard, bluebirds come and go through these collages; native plants bud, flower, and go to seed; the seasons cycle along.”
Born in Birmingham,AL, Billy Renkl graduated fromAuburn University with a BFAin Visual Communications and an MFAin StudioArt, Drawing, and Painting from the University of South Carolina. He is a professor of drawing and illustration atAustin Peay State University in Clarksville,TN, where he lives and works. Renkl’s work has been featured in many solo and group exhibitions, including shows in Nashville, New Orleans, New York City, Cincinnati, and Berlin, Germany. He is also the illustrator of When You Breathe by Diana Farid; Late Migrations and The Comfort of Crows, both by Margaret Renkl, feature his collage works.This is his first solo exhibition at David Lusk Gallery.