Art

Loss

I began this painting about a week after my grandma transitioned from this life to the next. Since then, we've been working together as a family to hold an estate sale and prepare her house for the market. But last week, I set aside the logistics for a few mornings to complete the painting, to…Read more Loss

Shattering Into Light (2)

There is a tragedy that stalks me year after year. The precipitating event is over and done with, resounding in its finality; but the repercussions morph through time. It is a question with no answer, a terrible wrong that cannot be righted, a haunting that cannot be exorcised. Sometimes I am angry. Like Edvard Munch's…Read more Shattering Into Light (2)

Summer Will Come

My beloved Grandma, otherwise known as Gigi, always used to say, “This too shall pass.” Far more than a cliché to her, the phrase allowed her to laugh in the face of life's tragedies. Her Irish merriment, sprinkled liberally through the years, seasons me still. It broke her heart to send her husband off to…Read more Summer Will Come

A Prayer for My Country

Here in Colorado, I breathe thick orange haze of Western wildfires, even as Texans stumble through water-logged debris, and evacuees flee Florida. With all its warts and weaknesses, America is the country I love. Generations of my family fought for the freedoms I cherish today. I've traveled the world and witnessed first-hand the alternatives to…Read more A Prayer for My Country

Artist Process – All That’s Lost

I've been pondering an idea lately that what is “lost” does not actually cease to exist, but simply morphs into another form of equal (or perhaps greater) value. Of course this idea is not original, but is a basic principle of physics. Definition of conservation of energy (Merriam Webster) “a principle in physics: the total energy…Read more Artist Process – All That’s Lost

Shattering Into Light

Here, taunting dark, questions stab, backwards bend. Shutting down, like sifting sands closing in. Tender, firm command: “Ask.” Gentle touch: Unanswerable questions, open wounds. Eyes downcast, hesitant, unable to hold this claustrophobic space anymore, I ask. “Now, listen.” There, in quiet circle of sentinel trees, I hear: not a mighty wind, not an audible voice,…Read more Shattering Into Light

The Power of a Line

  Lines are powerful. I'll never forget the first time I leaned in close to examine a graphite line drawn by Van Gogh. The shimmering dance of the stroke, straight from the master artist's hand,  absolutely enchanted me. Lines, as my college professor taught, can whisper and shout. For this painting, I allowed myself to feel; and…Read more The Power of a Line

Believing What I Can’t See

Many times for me, painting is a language I speak to myself – to affirm what I know to be true and thus to persuade my own heart to believe. The physical world around me, in a similar way, constantly whispers metaphors to me concerning spiritual truths. In this painting, for example, I wrestle with Newton's third law…Read more Believing What I Can’t See

Trying Again

I would really like to just stop painting. I'm weary of the creative journey at the moment. The impetus - I entered a show and didn't get in. And I thought - I'm done with this. I would like to be happy doing something else. I made it almost a month, and then I couldn't…Read more Trying Again

Can Art Change the World?

  In my travels around the world, I've witnessed excruciating suffering and pain. When I see a baby dying in Mathare Valley slum of Nairobi, Kenya for lack of a $20 medication, I don't think about painting a picture. I just need to get the money to the child's parents so she can see a…Read more Can Art Change the World?