Donna Moore: Hope is the Thing with Feathers…
August 6-27, 2021
Donna Moore: Hope is the Thing with Feathers…
Opening reception: Friday, August 6, 5:00-9:00 PM
Gallery hours: Monday-Friday 9 AM – 5 PM
Donna Headrick Moore is a photographer and educator from Blaine, Tennessee. She works with pinhole cameras and historic/alternative photographic processes. Her work has been shown in Knoxville and the surrounding areas, as well as across the United States. She is the Co-Director of the Big Camera, a traveling darkroom and Camera Obscura.
I consider myself a memory collector more than a photographer. Memories of my past, people and places, memories of faded dreams, memories of flowers, birds and the sun as it crosses the sky. It takes time to gather them up. When I make a photograph, it feels like a meditation, being in the moment, counting the time for each exposure in seconds, and minutes; sometimes waiting days and months.
The beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic in the beginning of 2020 was a time of uncertainty and fear. Our governor issued a two-week ‘safer at home’ order at the end of March that ended up lasting much longer. No one really knew what to expect… normal life just stopped. Inspired by the poem ‘“Hope” is the thing with feathers’ by Emily Dickinson, I began to make postcard-size lumen prints with feathers every day. Sometimes I made only one, and sometimes several – thinking of those who had passed and those who were suffering. It became my daily meditation, and I never stopped at all. It had become such a ritual that it was difficult to think of ending the project. But, after getting my vaccine in March 2021, I knew it was time. We have all come a long way in a year – more than 600,000 people have died and many more still suffer from the virus. It is not over, but we are all in a more hopeful place.
www.donnaheadrickmoore.com
Instagram: HopeFeathers2020
The exhibitions are on display at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay Street, in downtown Knoxville. For more information, please see www.knoxalliance.com or call (865) 523-7543.