Each painting has it's own story to tell..
"GREEN AND GOLDEN"
"A tree says: My strength is trust...I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live." - Herman Hesse
I paint a lot of trees. I have very few turn out in a way I feel gives them justice. They are like portraits of friends, and if everything doesn't come together, it doesn't work. This piece is one I feel hit the mark. I have had a deep love for trees as long as I can remember. Growing up in Kansas, they were somewhat of a rare commodity, When I was 4 playing in the snow, my mom within earshot, I suddenly wrapped my arms around the big elm trunk and yelled at the top of my lungs, "thank you, God, for trees!!" And I've always felt that way. They live long lives and show their scars and battle wounds with nature, yet continue to give beauty, shade and shelter. The Native Americans call trees " Grandfather", implying the wisdom and greatness they bestow on earth. As a people so connected to the earth, I think that is a perfect description of their majesty.
"CHACO SHADOWS"
" I arise today through - Strength in the sky , Light of sun , Moon's reflection , Dazzle of fire , Speed of lightning , Wild wind , Deep sea , Firm earth , Hard rock." - excerpt from Confession of St. Patrick
This piece is based on a photo from Chaco canyon- a beautiful, desolate, sacred place. The painting is an attempt to capture the ancient voices embedded in the stones that seem to whisper as you pass by . Shadows fall dramatically in Chaco canyon, and as I watched the darkness creep over an ancient wall, I was struck by a pervading sense of timelessness. In a thousand years, very little has changed . Shards of pottery 1000 years old still litter the ground. The descendants of ravens here when the occupants of Chaco were living and breathing, follow you with distrustful eyes. The sun shines, the shadows fall, just as they have throughout the ages.
Life is full of paradox. Beautiful, terrible, momentary and eternal all at the same time. Inhabitants of the earth have lived this incongruity while attempting to create order over the millennia in every society. The remnants in this canyon connect us to the human experience in a way few places on earth do.
Life is full of paradox. Beautiful, terrible, momentary and eternal all at the same time. Inhabitants of the earth have lived this incongruity while attempting to create order over the millennia in every society. The remnants in this canyon connect us to the human experience in a way few places on earth do.
"Evergreens"
"I would like to achieve a state of inner spiritual grace from which I could function and give as I was meant to in the eye of God" - Anne Morrow Lindbergh
This is a piece I painted from that mindset I try so hard to reach but that comes very rarely- a place inviting me to not worry about the outcome, but to enjoy the feel of the brush on paper, the mingling of the water and paint, the movement that seems to be guided and effortless. Guided by something deep inside that is unlocked - by what I don't know. I just know it when it shows itself.
This serendipity doesn't happen very often, but I love this painting because I think it conveys how it felt to paint it- from a completely intuitive place. It's exciting when something previously unknown wells up inside of you and flows out onto the paper.
There is beauty in stillness. There is beauty in your own ideas, and trusting your own imagination. When things come from a place inside of you, they are unique and a gift to the world. My hope is that we are all able to look inside ourselves more deeply and trust in what we find there in every corner of our lives. This is where true empowerment, creativity and passion come from. You are enough. Let your mind be quiet and listen to what it has been trying to say to you.
"CLOTHESLINE"
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"Fairy tales had been her first experience of the magical universe, and more than once she had wondered why people ended up distancing themselves from that world, knowing the immense joy that childhood had brought to their lives." -Paulo Coelho
"Clothesline" is about play, childhood, freedom and imagination. That feeling when you are a kid and the world is your own.
I was lucky enough to grow up in the middle of Kansas with expansive wheat fields behind our house, with big cottonwood trees in the middle of them to hide or sit under or race around. My mom grew up in Oklahoma, and her stories of laying in the fields watching pictures in the clouds go by and helping her mom pin up the wet clothes on the clotheslines always stayed with me.
Here is a sort of ethereal, abstract piece meant to evoke feelings from some of those lovely, long summer days we spent as kings of our kingdoms. I hope you know exactly what I'm talking about.
I was lucky enough to grow up in the middle of Kansas with expansive wheat fields behind our house, with big cottonwood trees in the middle of them to hide or sit under or race around. My mom grew up in Oklahoma, and her stories of laying in the fields watching pictures in the clouds go by and helping her mom pin up the wet clothes on the clotheslines always stayed with me.
Here is a sort of ethereal, abstract piece meant to evoke feelings from some of those lovely, long summer days we spent as kings of our kingdoms. I hope you know exactly what I'm talking about.
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"Aspen Grove"
"Oh, these vast, calm, measureless mountain days, days in whose light everything seems equally divine, opening a thousand windows to show us God." - John Muir
Aspen Grove" is a painting I did after a trip to Colorado, during a time of big transition in my life. Being in Colorado has always calmed my spirit and helped me feel ready to re-enter the " real world", as I was embarking on a new life, a new job, and a new city as a single mom. I have found that when I am in a place of difficulty in my life, I feel closest to God when I am walking through his creation.
In this piece, I tried to pour the feeling of being among those iridescent, twinkling trees into a fun, spontaneous piece using splatter, some scraping, and wet in wet techniques.
In this piece, I tried to pour the feeling of being among those iridescent, twinkling trees into a fun, spontaneous piece using splatter, some scraping, and wet in wet techniques.
"SANCTUARY"
"Sanctuary"
"To know a thing is to awaken to it's depth, complexity, and presence. Each thing secretly and profoundly desires to be known." - John O'Donohue
"SEASPRAY"
SeaSpray
"The house was built on the highest part of the narrow tongue of land between the harbor and the open sea. It had lasted through three hurricanes and it was built solid as a ship." - Ernest Hemingway
This is one of my favorite paintings - but never a popular favorite. And that is what makes art, art! I love it that we are all drawn to different things in art, and it is totally unpredictable what that thing will be. Sometimes what draws us is not capable of being verbalized. Love comes in different ways through our artwork and that is part of what makes it so AMAZING!
I love the color saturation and the effects from salt, water, dripping and merging in this piece. I used lots of salt and waterspray to infuse it with the feeling of being pounded by the elements, but the strong division and geometric shapes of the composition make it feel strong and steady.
I grew up sailing with my dad, and there is nothing like being moved through the water and wind on a sailboat. The sound of sails flapping, water spraying, the exhilaration of cutting through the waves at a sharp angle. There is also a certain melancholy about the ocean; its ageless sounds, its constant calling. Like the stars in the sky and the moon that tugs at its waves, the sea is ancient and timeless. This piece brings all of that to mind for me.
I love the color saturation and the effects from salt, water, dripping and merging in this piece. I used lots of salt and waterspray to infuse it with the feeling of being pounded by the elements, but the strong division and geometric shapes of the composition make it feel strong and steady.
I grew up sailing with my dad, and there is nothing like being moved through the water and wind on a sailboat. The sound of sails flapping, water spraying, the exhilaration of cutting through the waves at a sharp angle. There is also a certain melancholy about the ocean; its ageless sounds, its constant calling. Like the stars in the sky and the moon that tugs at its waves, the sea is ancient and timeless. This piece brings all of that to mind for me.
"PRAIRIE DANCE"
This is a scene from out in the Flint Hills of Kansas, around Matfield Green. This is one of our favorite places on earth. The area draws writers, artists, and nature lovers and has fast become a little artists community, with the the Gallery at Pioneer Bluffs at it's center, where my husband and I showed our work a few years back.
The Flint Hills surrounding Matfield Green are magical, with undulating forms, shifting in color and light, as far as the eye can see from dawn until sundown. You can be out all day and not see another soul, except for the wild horses running in the wind. If you wait long enough into the night, the coyotes will begin talking to you.
I loved this scene of a fleeting moment in time, as the sun was getting lower on the horizon, the clouds shifting, there was a glow to everything and the sunflowers seemed to be dancing.
The Flint Hills surrounding Matfield Green are magical, with undulating forms, shifting in color and light, as far as the eye can see from dawn until sundown. You can be out all day and not see another soul, except for the wild horses running in the wind. If you wait long enough into the night, the coyotes will begin talking to you.
I loved this scene of a fleeting moment in time, as the sun was getting lower on the horizon, the clouds shifting, there was a glow to everything and the sunflowers seemed to be dancing.
"We are here to witness the creation and abet it." -Annie Dillard
This is a scene from out in the Flint Hills of Kansas, around Matfield Green. This is one of our favorite places on earth. The area draws writers, artists, and nature lovers and has fast become a little artists community, with the the Gallery at Pioneer Bluffs at it's center, where my husband and I showed our work a few years back.
The Flint Hills surrounding Matfield Green are magical, with undulating forms, shifting in color and light, as far as the eye can see from dawn until sundown. You can be out all day and not see another soul, except for the wild horses running in the wind. If you wait long enough into the night, the coyotes will begin talking to you.
I loved this scene of a fleeting moment in time, as the sun was getting lower on the horizon, the clouds shifting, there was a glow to everything and the sunflowers seemed to be dancing.
The Flint Hills surrounding Matfield Green are magical, with undulating forms, shifting in color and light, as far as the eye can see from dawn until sundown. You can be out all day and not see another soul, except for the wild horses running in the wind. If you wait long enough into the night, the coyotes will begin talking to you.
I loved this scene of a fleeting moment in time, as the sun was getting lower on the horizon, the clouds shifting, there was a glow to everything and the sunflowers seemed to be dancing.