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Oracle Stone's Grove, 1976
Dream: "A friend and I drove in my red truck, over a hill, there was a stone woman who sat in a grove of trees in beautiful filtered light. She spoke in vapors—not words—through channels at the top and bottom of the stone. It seemed natural that we understood. It was a moment of unbelievable beauty, numinous. Suddenly she slipped from her chair, into a hole in the ground. We caught her, and put her back on her chair. She was no longer able to speak." —Donna Byars 
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"Dreams are, by their nature, revelatory, whether one regards them from a mystical or psychological point of view. As a source for the private icon they offer a wealth of significance relevant to everyday life, but also completely unique and personal. The dream behind Byars' Oracle
Stone's Grove blends her knowledge of myth with the circumstances of her life, so that the dream becomes not just an occurrence in the course of sleeping but a mandate (if ambiguous) in her waking life as well. The work functions then as reminder of the dreamer's own insights and imperatives. While the artist shares the icon with the audience she has also subjected the image to an initial act of distillation (by blending a sequence of events into one) in order to align the structure of the audience's analysis of the work with her own." [pages 1-2]
—Madeline Burnside and Ingberman, Jeanette Ingberman
Private Icon, catalogue, The Bronx Museum of Art, March 1979
Stone's Grove blends her knowledge of myth with the circumstances of her life, so that the dream becomes not just an occurrence in the course of sleeping but a mandate (if ambiguous) in her waking life as well. The work functions then as reminder of the dreamer's own insights and imperatives. While the artist shares the icon with the audience she has also subjected the image to an initial act of distillation (by blending a sequence of events into one) in order to align the structure of the audience's analysis of the work with her own." [pages 1-2]
—Madeline Burnside and Ingberman, Jeanette Ingberman
Private Icon, catalogue, The Bronx Museum of Art, March 1979
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Dressed in White, 2012. 64" x 92" x 102"