Cascade

Some kids pitch a fit or hold their breath. As a nerdy child my coping skill was rearranging the furniture. Then I became a professional decorator, and I loved it. But I didn’t realize that my release would be less effective and I would need a new escape plan when experiencing a very grief filled chapter of life.

Apparently, I was still in denial so immersing myself in academia seemed like a great idea. I signed up for Integrating the Arts Into the Curriculum at Lesley University. The syllabus was intense and scholarly pursuits felt like a remedy. I was shocked to discover that the entire program was based on self reflection, storytelling, poetry. Thought I was getting away from my own head! I sure did find myself. Skipped a few stages of grief to acceptance and a Master’s Degree! Needless to say, it was one of the best things I have ever done in my life.

I was thinking about my cohorts from that time while painting this one called Cascade. These friends and that process remind me that sometimes we need to open the flood gates, let the waves crash over us, learn to swim with the current, and all those watery analogies.

14x11 inches. Oil & cold wax on wood framed silver. $400. Click here to shop.

Vinyl. Don't judge me.

I get the sound aesthetic of vintage vinyl. The white noise and the clicks and pops. Like most 60’s households of my youth, center stage was the large stereo Hi-Fi system in its tambor doored cabinet. Wire racks held my parents’ extensive collection. They were early adopters of an album of the month type club. Their tastes ran the gamut from Marty Robbins to Frannte and Teicher. I think the drama that each artist offered through gunfighter ballads or piano renditions of classics got them hooked.. Or maybe they just forgot to send the postcard back on time.

We were allowed to use the equipment, too. But I always had to wait until no one was home to fully enjoy my listening experience. It was 1970 and my music love coincided with my all time favorite TV show. I own the entire family collection and most of the main star’s solo career up until about 1975. 

I added to the wire rock as a teenager with my own subscription which brought Queen into the house and I had to have the soundtrack to A Chorusline. I took to James, Joni, and Jackson early but traded vinyl for a walkman and cassettes. These folks are my daily go to once again upgraded to CD's. 

Despite ridicule, I stand by my vinyl collection. I have them still and will cherish them always.

These pieces are called “Get on the Bus” - inspired by the Partridge Family. They’re 8x10 inches each, sold together for $625 or individually for $325 each. Click here to shop.

Big Purple Heart

There is a heavy landscape element to this painting. If it had a theme song, it would be  “This Land is Your Land”. That idyllic Woody Guthrie song meant something to me as a kid. I thought it could be true. The painting had a different back story.⁣
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It started at the Arty Block Party in Park Circle. I was a featured artist doing a painting demonstration. Though introverted, I want to put on a little show. So I brought my giant beach ball with painting prompts written in each section. It was tossed about the audience. The person who caught it shouts out a color or type of long or demand to use the giant brush meant for scrubbing the charcoal grill. As the painter, I must comply. Fun! For the first hour. I was hot. I was covered in paint and the party was winding down. The ball was supposed to get tossed back to me but it was intercepted by a gentleman who requested I paint a big purple heart. I put on a happy face and brushed on a giant purple heart across the whole painting. Big purple hearts really aren’t my thing. I went home and scrubbed up and put the painting aside. ⁣
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Later, at another North Charleston art event, I ran to the same man. We get to chatting and realize we’ve met each other once before. It was Willis Sanders. He is retired but still an arts advocate and artist who works a little purple heart into all his images. He had visited a school where I was teaching GT art classes when we met years before.  He told me that he had been sitting for a student to paint his portrait. Soon that portrait would be going to the White House for Youth Art Month. How cool is that?
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The next day there is a whole article in the paper. There is a copy of the stellar portrait, Willis, the model, and the artist who turns out to be one of my former students. Imagine a painting of black man, made by a brown child, going to be on display living in our current White House. I got inspired. I pulled out the hot mess of a painting with a giant purple heart scrawled across it. Now, I saw a purpose. I understood Willis Sanders’ request for a Purple Heart. I felt connectivity back to “This Land is Your Land”. 

I transformed the heart into the infinity symbol so the love goes on and on. May there be love for the land and all its inhabitants. May it truly be “made for you and me”.⁣
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“Big Purple Heart”. Acrylic on canvas. 36x48 inches. $1,000. Available to purchase here.

Imagine

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace

One day some kids cut through our yard and my step father went ballistic posturing and yelling
“ours not yours”. The kids kept walking. I kept quiet about my brothers and me, cutting through in the opposite direction when we wanted to get to the field with the big hill that had the best sledding. My house had an atmosphere of discord. I retreated to my room and my radio.

It was 1971. John Lennon sang to me. “Imagine there’s no countries”. My fascination with maps and charts and diagrams changed. Once I loved the aesthetic of a map; the colors and the shapes, but especially the order and definition of all the spaces organized into patterns like a quilt. Suddenly, I saw “our not yours” and I did begin to imagine a world without these constructed boundaries.

My abstracted landscapes often depict compositions inspired by old school maps with imaginary fluid edges. Here, the six panels represent the six places I have lived from childhood until now, New England to South Carolina. Where you come from, what you hear and see, shapes you.

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’ not the only one
I hope someday you will join us
And the world will live as one.