“Saint Rita of Cascia”

“Saint Rita of Cascia”
Yardbird
Gouache on book cover in handmade frame
8 x 18"
$700

"You can find me in a dumpster or under a bridge foraging for discarded wood scraps for framing materials. I'll disassemble a trashed book shelf, bed frame or old chair with the seat blown out and reassemble the pieces into decorative altar-like frames for devotional gouache portraits of catholic icons. I'll usually start a project by foraging the materials, building a frame and then deciding which icon I want to study and paint to fit. Growing up a queer catholic and overcoming a struggle with alcoholism and drug addiction, my focus landed on religion, desire and fear.  I've found inspiration, comfort and community in the curious beauty of devotional catholic art. I've also found the constant threat of punishment within this work to be uncomfortably familiar but relevant to my process."

Max Yardbird is a self taught, queer outsider artist working in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They are a painter, wood worker, frame builder and laborer with a recent focus on devotional gouache paintings of catholic icons in altar-like frames handmade from salvaged and repurposed wood.