Mommy and The Girls at Storm King
In Mommy and The Girls at Storm King, Troy Hul Arnold captures a moment of generational dialogue within the expansive landscape of the Storm King Art Center in upstate New York. Central to the composition is Catherine London—Arnold’s mother and recurring muse—seated gracefully in Johnny Swing’s iconic Butterfly Chair, a sculptural work crafted from welded nickel coins. Her presence exudes both quiet authority and maternal warmth, grounding the scene as a point of stability and reflection.

Surrounding her, Arnold’s two youngest nieces investigate the chair with childlike wonder, their curiosity juxtaposing the static permanence of sculpture with the fleeting nature of youth. The moment, sunlit and serene, is as much about the landscape as it is about legacy—the women of three generations in conversation through posture, gaze, and shared presence.

By placing his family within the context of a monumental art environment, Arnold subtly bridges the personal with the institutional, the domestic with the public, and the familial with the universal. Mommy and The Girls at Storm King becomes both a tribute to maternal lineage and a meditation on how art—whether sculptural or lived—connects us across time.