Recordings
The drawings and paintings in this exhibition were created in June 2011 at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), an artist colony in Amherst, Virginia. They are recordings, notes, suggestions and memories, stored as colors and textures within a framework of grids; almost like swatches or parts of something larger; intimate observations and joyful connections of small things converging in a quiet place. Papers are handmade Kozo and Gampi and materials are collage, graphite pencils, watercolors, oil sticks, Japanese ink and paper pulp.
In these drawings and paintings: the changing greens in the landscape seen from my large studio windows; the kudzu-covered tree that looks like an elephant when it sways in the wind; a tiny purple flower blooming alone under the fence in the pasture where the horses graze; a pale pink moth found by a composer on her grand piano and brought to me because she knew that I would like it; the newly-restored outdoor swimming pool where I swam laps; and the magnificent trees, mature boxwoods and 60 foot-long Bottle Brush Buckeye on the property. Sections of the drawings act as containers, re-opening—at each viewing—experiences of that time and place, sometimes co-mingling with a remembrance of the jumbled world beyond the gates. As the quietness took over, I became aware of my days becoming more and more pure and the stressful life outside less and less influential on my work.
