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Churning, still, rippling, receding, rising. Too salty, too warm, too little, too much. We all need fresh water and yet… Photographs of people seeking refuge in lands across bodies of water, capsized boats, raging rivers breaching levies, and wetlands were sources of inspiration for my first water paintings. Now, living by the water in Maine, the ocean as a resource, an everchanging ecosystem and a complex contributor to the quality of our lives is an omnipresent component of my paintings. As I walk its shores, I become immersed in its reflections, depths, fog and light, and the sounds of the tides, churn, and wind upon its surface.
Battling winds, rising waters, salted seas, and ravaging winds, flowers and plants along the Maine coast are tenacious. Are we? The flora in this collections stem from observation and imagination. Entwined, bitter, thorny, blooming, and withered as the lives we lead.
Ancient rocks, trees holding on to eroding shores, salted roots in rising seas, and wind shorn shrubs twisted and torn. Walking the land, on bluffs, woodland trails, and sea shores, delicate plants and hefty boulders equally capture my attention. Their relationships to each other mimic our own, inextricably bound, symbiotic, and ephemeral.
Climate change, pollution, man-made disasters. The damage we do to the earth is the motivation behind these paintings.
2020-Present
These abstractions of tide plains and seabirds began shortly after I arrived in Maine. As I've seen the decline in the numbers of birds, my attention is drawn to them even more.
With all the hardship and strife in the world, I can't help but imagine brighter better places. These imaginary worlds aside worlds, address the need to break free from the divisiveness and anger, to shift paradigms.
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