Queenfisher / Oil on linen / 24” x 16” / 2022

Queenfisher depicts Juliet Law Packer, a television writer working from her apartment in New York City, and makes reference to the kingfisher, a small bird of outsized grace whose hunting strategies have come to represent Packer’s artistic practice. To catch food, the bird perches by the water, patient. Then, spying a fish, it rises into the air and plunges suddenly underwater, swimming, to claim its prey. The instinct to fish runs deep, the mechanics of it wired into the primitive mind of the animal. Day in and day out, the Kingfisher performs its craft. It’s magical; it’s repeatable.

By analogy, Packer knows the rhythms and requirements of storytelling. She too waits until transported into the flow state of creativity. At this stage of her career, she trusts the process. In conversation about the merits of inspiration and craft, Packer declared that, for herself, “Craft is everything”.

LWC: Even though Juliet is a writer and I’m a visual artist, a lot of parallel themes come up in our practices. She described at one point imagining she has backup singers - writers she admires, loved ones who support her. I came up with my own list of “backup singers” that propel me forward and give me a sense of being a part of a long history and a larger community.