Holding Up the Sky

Holding Up the Sky marks a new chapter in Phoebe’s artistic journey, blending her traditional painting practice with innovative, sustainable explorations of materiality. In this body of work, Phoebe embarks on a symbolic exploration of human vulnerability, weaving together visual and textual elements into a “choose-your-own-adventure” viewing experience that moves us through cycles of grief and resilience. Material waste is given new purpose by the weaving together of discarded fabrics, old clothing beyond wear, and collections of beach waste like nautical rope. Materials once considered useless are interlaced into a lush and vibrant garden of renewal and transformation. 

Accompanying the weaving of repurposed materials is a large quilt-like painting that merges passages of song lyrics, literary fragments, and Victorian-era plant symbolism to tell a complex, multi-layered narrative of struggle, resilience, and the passage of time. Drawing inspiration from Virginia Woolf’s The Waves and the melancholic yet hopeful lyrics of The Rising Storm’s song “Frozen Laughter,” this fusion of text and image offers a rich, layered approach to understanding the collective grief of our time. The juxtaposition of lyrical imagery with visual composition creates an atmosphere that is at once melancholic and hopeful, embodying the complex emotional terrain that accompanies loss and healing. Holding Up the Sky is a meditation on the delicate, fragile nature of life itself—where grief, beauty, and memory are woven together to form a tapestry of resilience, transformation, and the enduring search for meaning in an ever-changing world.

Phoebe Harris is a contemporary Maine-born artist currently living in Portland. Her work draws upon the delicate interplay between memory, materiality, and the natural world. Her practice spans a variety of media, most notably painting, where she constructs vibrant, emotionally resonant compositions with subtle layers of narrative. At the core of Phoebe’s work is an exploration of loss, connection, and the challenges of our time, informed by a deep sensitivity to the natural world and the ephemera of everyday life.