(Gainesville, Florida, 1946 - )
From the series "Return Trips"
1999
Gelatin silver print
8 1/2 x 6 1/4 in. (21.6 x 16.0 cm)
Collection of the Akron Art Museum
Gift of the artist
1999.39
These works combine autobiographical and universal imagery to address women’s roles as sources of fertility, sensuality, gentleness and creators of life. The works in this series feature images from travels combined with portraits and views of daily routine in ways that address the “layered and cyclical nature of time” as well as a “sense of place and memory.” The arrangement of these images (a triptych on top of a single image) is based on religious paintings Nettles saw in Italy. Referred to as a ‘predella,’ this series of paintings beneath the main scene of an altarpiece creates a narrative. Nettles reversed the typical altarpiece format by placing her groupings of images across the top.