Category: Being an artist

Happy Thanksgiving and Studio Musings

It’s been an interesting time lately in the studio. Since I’ve given myself the space to experiment and try new things, I am dealing with a lot of self doubt and uncertainty. These are normal parts of the creative process, but sometimes they come on harder than others, so it’s been a challenging time for me. There are some cool projects that have emerged though and I wanted to share one of these experiments with you. This is one that I just completed. It’s comprised of 400 pins pressed into the wall with 100 colors of embroidery thread wrapped around them. Like a sand painting, it’s a delicate and ephemeral piece. It will literally fall apart when it’s time to remove it from the wall, and reinstalling it will require starting from the beginning with a drawn pencil grid on a wall. When I made it I was thinking of the blues and greens and earth reds of my beloved NC landscape.

This was at the beginning of the process. If you know me, you know I love any opportunity to use my adventure gear, and I just had to use my headlamp for additional lighting. I also made good use of my fanny pack to keep my tools at hand. (Ha!)

If you’re looking for a gift for a special person (or for yourself!) I have artworks, prints and books available on my online shop. You’ll find quick links below:

★ Find the Perfect Gift Here ★
Original Paintings
Prints
Botanical Greeting Cards
Watercolor Books

Adventures in Weaving and Saatchi Featured Artist

It’s official. I’m in love.
I’m in love with my new (to me) weaving loom. I put off buying a floor loom after starting to weave with a simpler kind of loom a few of years ago. Then after taking an experimental weaving and drawing workshop this summer at Penland School of Craft, I ended up going deep in the weaving rabbit hole, and took the plunge a couple weeks ago with this particular floor loom. This one is a four-shaft loom built like a tank because it’s made to be able to weave rugs on it.
I’m learning more complex weaving structures now, and while setup and troubleshooting patterns like this one are slow, in the process of fixing mistakes I’m learning a lot. Taking the time to do things right is worth it. The weaving is going smoothly and it is magical to see the pattern appear on fabric. As I do this, I’m getting ideas and I plan to use weaving techniques to make some large-scale installations combined with sound and video in some upcoming exhibits… Ultimately I hope to figure out a way to make work that pairs my paintings and textiles in a way that makes sense conceptually and visually.
This is A German Bird’s Eye I from Davison’s A Handweaver’s Pattern Book.
This is A German Bird’s Eye I from Davison’s A Handweaver’s Pattern Book.

I went all in with the weaving/fibers and took everything off one of my studio walls to build yarn storage. My father in law and partner built these shelves with me and I must say that seeing all these yarn colors neatly arranged brings me lots of satisfaction and gets my creative juices going!

 

 

And in other news, Saatchi Art is featuring my work in their New This Week selection of artists. You can see Of stones and earth and air with an interesting pairing of works here.

“Of Stones and Earth and Air,” 2019, oil on canvas, 60 x 72 inches

Art in Embassies

Earlier this week The U.S. Department of State sent an art shipper to my studio to pack up “Field and Forest with pink.” Through the Art in Embassies program, this painting is headed to the Kyrgyz Republic to live with the U.S. Ambassador there on their tour of duty.

Field And Forest With Pink, acrylic on wood, 18 x 24 inches

The U.S. Department of State has run Art in Embassies since 1963 to create cross-cultural dialogue and foster mutual understanding through the visual arts. I love the idea that one of my paintings is headed to a country I haven’t visited.

As part of the Art in Embassies program, the U.S. Ambassador to the Kyrgyz Republic selected my painting for the official residence in Bishkek.

Writer Scott Sexton wrote a great piece about it in today’s Winston Salem Journal and you can read it here.

Birthday Thoughts

I turn 43 in a couple of weeks and I’ve been thinking about what it is I’m doing with my life and asking myself a lot of questions around my purpose. This year for the first time, I realized that I do this every year before my birthday, and so it hasn’t negatively impacted me like it has in the past. Rather than being upset and doubting myself, I’m noticing my thoughts and acknowledging that this is normal for me at this time of year. It feels good not to freak out over this stuff, to have perspective and to be able to sit with what used to be uncomfortable thoughts for me.

Does your birthday mark a time of reflection for you? Or send you into a tailspin? What kind of things do you think about during that time?

wind on the mountain
Wind on the Mountain, oil and acrylic on canvas, 30 x 30 inches

Art Benefit for Gateway Nature Preserve

My family really enjoys watching the wildlife in our backyard right now – the squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks and birds of all kinds – busily and sometimes loudly living their lives. If you’re in Winston-Salem, NC this weekend, I invite you to an art exhibit fundraiser to benefit Gateway Nature Preserve. Here are the details:

Nature-Inspired Art Exhibit, May 19 – 21 at Culture Studio/Gallery
The exhibit kicks off at 7pm on Friday night with an opening reception at Culture Studio/Gallery located on the 9th floor of the Liberty Plaza building at 102 W. Third St. Check out Gateway Nature Preserve’s website for more info about the event, and scroll down to see the artworks I’m contributing to the exhibit.

Can’t make it this weekend, but still want some artwork that supports the environment? I donate a portion of my art sales each year to Yadkin Riverkeeper, so any purchase through my Shop benefits this nonprofit that helps keep our waterways clean.

How I Made This Painting

I recently finished this painting of people and cars at a dirt track, and thought you might like to see how it progressed from start to finish. For reference, I used photos I took at the local county fair in Winston-Salem, NC. I combined parts of the images, then made changes to that and invented other bits.

In this video, I’ll show you the different paint layers and explain what’s happening in each one.

Enjoy!

 

Interview with Red House Podcast

A few weeks ago I had a chance to sit with Tyler Nail, the Winston-Salem song writer and music producer, on his Red House podcast. In our wide-ranging conversation we compare notes on making visual art and music, discuss why taking care of your health is a rebellious act as an artist, being purposeful in life and in your creative practice, making tough decisions as a parent and when to let go, the resurgence of tradition and technique in art and music and many other ideas on life and art. Thanks Tyler for the excellent conversation!

You can watch it on YouTube or listen to it on any of the platforms below. And give Tyler a listen if you haven’t already. You can find his music here. Enjoy!

Listen to the podcast here:

Apple Podcast

Spotify

Amazon Music

Don’t use one of the above platforms? Find all the others linked here.

 

On the studio wall

works in progress on studio wall

What’s happening in the studio these days… These are some works in progress on the wall. The pieces on the sides are finished and the one in the middle is in the early stages of painting.

 

 

Happy New Year and 2022 year in review

Happy New Year! 2023 is here and I’m off and running (literally and figuratively).

Good things happened in 2022. Thank you so much for your support during the last year. Thank you for reading my writing, following me on Facebook and Instagram, sending me kind messages, buying my work, and sharing my work with your friends and family… all of it helps keep me motivated and supports my artistic practice. Here are some of the things your support made possible in 2022:

I received a NC Arts Council Support Grant to study encaustic painting. I finally got to use this mysterious medium I’d wanted to try for years.

UNC School of the Arts offered me a visiting professor position for the 2022-2023 school year, and I’ve been having a blast teaching in the School of Film.

I exhibited at Charlotte Russell Contemporary Gallery in Raleigh, NC.

My work was featured on New South Finds.

My work was featured in Forsyth Woman.

I finally made the leap back into figuration that I’d been thinking about for so long, and am developing a new body of work combining people and abstraction.

And personally:

I had a chance to travel back to France to hike and spend time with my family there last summer – the first time since Covid.

I successfully ran my first trail marathon at Pilot Mountain, NC. (I’m now training for this year’s race coming in February.)

I took my son on his first backpacking trip in the Greyson Highlands and the Appalachian Trail. There may have been a few tears, but he is hooked and we’ve been back out there again.

Thank you for helping make all of this possible! 2023 is going to be a great year.

abstract landscape paintings on wall
Pilot Mountain 1 and 7, each 20×20 on wood panel

 

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