Because Hammond uses a repeating set of images - her famous "lexicon" of 276 objects and figures, from 19th-century ballerinas to kachina dolls to gargoyles - the paintings are mutations of themselves, as if each were one turn of the kaleidoscope. But that does not mean they look anything alike.

"I take elements out of their context," Hammond said in a recent interview. "Each element is freighted with its own time period, and I put them together like recombinant DNA." She points to a dollhouse in full bloom in one painting, and a much smaller version disappearing into the background in another. "I'm building a web of mythologies."

It's as if the flotsam and jetsam of the ages is in constant swirl, and Hammond has reached up and plucked them from history east and west, from Hinduism, medieval Europe, books of knots, veterinarian stitches, snippets of childhood songs, maps, old board games, wishbones, dahlias and much more. Her personal library (she haunts used-book stores) is an eclectic treasure trove.

--Amy Bracken Sparks, 2001