On Relationships

My painting and drawings are about my love of nature and my fascination with botanical forms. I am most at peace when I am outside, walking in the woods or near the water. I am instantly calmed by the site of the horizon, by an open sky, an expanse of water.

There is never anything man made in my work (although I did grow the garlic scapes in my garden). Nor are there people. My subject matter is purely natural forms, whether isolated against a gradient ground or presented within a landscape.

I did my fair share of figure drawing and painting in college, and while I learned tremendously from the practice, it just wasn’t for me. When I began painting on my own as a young adult, the subjects that interested me were organic: seaweed, shells, vines, branches. It was only after years of arranging these forms and painting them, and years of living and considering what brings meaning to my life, that I began to understand the anthropomorphism involved.

I have described in various artist statements how the interacting forms speak to different relationships in my life. Ultimately, for me, so much of what truly matters in life comes down to connection. When I compose my subjects, I am looking for moments of tension and resolution, an elegant dance of distance and closeness as the forms move through space.

I am passionate about trying to understand myself and the people in my life. As an avid reader of fiction, I am intrigued by relationships not only in the natural world but also in the books I read. I learn so much about myself through the characters in novels, as I watch them interact with each other, as they love, hurt, struggle, have insights and moments of awareness. I am so grateful to all the wonderful authors who have this gift to offer us, who can bring characters to life to help us see what motivates us, what we struggle with, how we keep going.

I just finished reading The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans. I highly recommend this portrait, through letters, of an older woman as she struggles to come to terms with her life through relationships she has maintained, mostly through letters, throughout her life. It is fascinating to watch her self awareness evolve through her correspondences, some with people she has known her whole life, some with people she encounters throughout the course of the novel.

Through my work, I hope, in some way, to offer you a similar, though wordless, perspective on relationships.

What are you reading? I’d love for you to share recommendations in the comments.