Nancy Baker Cahill

BULLET BLOSSOM SERIES This series developed after an initial visit to a shooting range in 2008. I had long wanted to understand what it felt like to handle and shoot a gun and to participate in that irrevocable moment of violence. I first shot standard ALCO-issue targets, and altered them after the fact by painting around the bullet holes—embellishing and softening them with ornate designs. From there I painted my own targets— ranging from female torso silhouettes to abstract willow branches and resulting in a series of poppy stems. The image of poppy stems grips me because they are figural, symbolic of addiction and consequent violence, and also represent a dream-like inertia popularized in movies like the Wizard of Oz. The “exit wound” of the bullet hole, while contained, captures that moment of destruction succinctly. I paint around the holes to heal, to distract from AND also draw attention to the moment, and to suggest that hope can co-exist with trauma. --Nancy Baker Cahill 2010

"Red & Pink Bullet Blossoms" Pastel and goache on paper, shot from behind with 9 mm handgun 11" x 15" in 18" x 22" frame $575	"Red & Pink Bullet Blossoms" detail	"Pink & Green Bullet Blossoms" Pastel and goache on paper, shot from behind with 9 mm handgun 11" x 15" in 18" x 22" frame $575
"Pink & Green Bullet Blossoms" detail	"Orange & Pink Bullet Blossoms" Pastel and goache on paper, shot from behind with 9 mm handgun 10" x 21" in 17" x 28" frame sold	"Orange & Pink Bullet Blossoms" detail