These paintings are about transition and the force of will to create our own narratives. The story I hope to tell you requires letting go of control. The first three large paintings in this new series are open-ended for you to create meaning and verse that resonate in your mind while also being about specific events in your life.
Artist Statement
The call came at 10pm on a Saturday night, April 2nd, 2016. Those I loved were gone. The roar of a freight train barreling towards me filled my psyche like an insect hoard. The life I knew was gone. For seven years after, I wandered the streets of Manhattan, not realizing the novel was being written. It was a story if only I could quiet myself for the duration of hearing it.
These paintings are about transition and the force of will to create our own narratives. The story I hope to tell you requires letting go of control. The first three large paintings in this new series are open-ended so that you can create meaning and verse that resonates in your mind while also being about specific events in your life. The first work, titled 'The Release of Potent Understanding' on a four-foot square canvas, is essentially a self-portrait that came to me in a vision. During those seven years of wandering, my closest friend, Marge, encouraged a change in my life by leaving NYC and living near her in Charleston, SC. As happens quite often with her, she wore me down through a loving attrition and helped change my life. Only upon this transition was I able to understand the potency of the journey I had completed. I was Home.
Soon, I met Annie, one of the most delightful and gentle souls I have known. Unfortunately, locked in an abusive relationship, it was difficult for her to see the way out. The second large painting, 'Journal of The Peregrine Cloud,' metaphorically depicts my perception of Annie's struggle: almost blindfolded yet finding the courage to leave and blossom into a life that only she, in her power of spirit, can navigate.
About the title: I knew my lovely friend could fly; her wings were bound, not clipped. Independence became her flight. She became a peregrine falcon, nomadic and self-assured. Writing powerful prose became her journal, the only still point of a journey.
'Warrior' is a painted perception of my beautiful friend Marge. A few months after helping change my life, she was diagnosed with almost stage four ovarian cancer and given three months to live. A second doctor insisted on surgery, which saved her life, yet this was just the beginning of a journey that consisted of a grueling regimen of chemotherapy thereafter. Walking beside her in this visceral struggle, I often called her my warrior girl; she prevailed with strength and a smile! This was the same cancer that years before had taken her mother's life.
Asked to compose the eulogy, she sat by the marsh near her house. While writing, a lone egret landed close by. Calling out, "Hello, Mom!" The bird, as if keeping her company, only left when she was done.