The recent Augury series:
I paint and draw in a space between nature and dream. In nature, I try to see other life with the intention to form a relationship. Assuming nothing, open to everything. This kind of observation is a meditation practice, in which I find stillness, meaning and beauty. As with other forms of meditation, I find it enriches my sense of belonging to this landscape, and presence with it as it unfolds to my senses. Time is replaced by light, temperature, and the natural rhythms of the earth. Science opens its door to a countless wordless languages as plants, stones, water flowing, become familiar to me. And my own dreams find their way into my waking life, weaving into my awareness of my surroundings. Each moment contains the beauty I study in a landscape, the spirits and dream beings I discover therein, and the emotions coursing through me that make it all meaningful. From this way of being in the world a personal mythology springs, making magic between the lines, connecting me to a deeper truth.
Current Biography:
I grew up in beautiful Brunswick, Maine, nurtured toward art and an appreciation of the natural world by a mother with a green-thumb and a father in the sailboat world. I tried hard not to learn anything from them and I did not know that Maine was especially beautiful. I thought an escape from paradise was in order in 2007 and entered a faster world when I moved to Philadelphia to attend Moore College of Art and Design. The city was exciting and I could not decide what to do with it. Tired of school, but owing it one more year, my friends and I put a lot of energy into starting up an art collective and arranging multi-disciplinary creative nights in gritty spaces in popular neighborhoods. It got us to graduation. In 2012, six of us bought a bus on Ebay and moved onto it for six months, attempting to escape schedules and break down assumptions we held about ourselves. It was painful and beautiful and transformative and I will not need to do it again.
The bus broke down in Asheville in 2013. I moved into the Landing that summer. A year an a half later, I felt the call of the hermit and moved into a little cottage against the Big Ivy forest in Barnardsville, NC. It is here I have found the way back to my roots in the woods, near the water. I am putting myself through the education my parents tried to give me, revelling in dirt and plants and the movement of the seasons. I divide my time between learning about nutrition, medicine, biology and botany, and dreaming, singing, painting and writing. A growing community of passionate, curious and creative people engaged in the natural world keeps me sane and in love with a home so removed from the bustle.
Past Artist Statements:
From the Shadow series:
"With these three paintings I am delving into a place that is neither entirely conscious nor entirely spontaneous/subconscious. Rather, I see the imagery as a fusion of the two, drawing heavily from dreams and visions that occur to me in meditation or physical ritual. I can offer some perspective by mentioning that, while creating these works, I have been exploring the tradition of animal medicine and spirit guides from a variety of American tribal cultures, spending time with and observing animals, reading and reflecting on ideas presented in the iChing (such as passive and active creativity, presentness, and a spiral path) and also regularly recording my dreams in writing when I wake each morning. A major impetus for all of these areas of study and reflection is a strong belief in our responsibility to rejuvenate and contribute to our oral tradition. The wisdom that will allow a culture or community to become in harmony with each other and our planet is found in its collective memory. So, today, I think it is crucial to value our stories, whether they come from our waking experience with each other and the earth, or from the realm of dream or shadow. It is all valuable, all with the potential to teach."
From the Dream Medicine series:
"I've been day and night dreaming some intense visions of animals, art forms, and landscape all of which feel tribal and old to me. These images have been an impetus for and a reflection of a recent exploration into animal medicine from several tribal traditions; various native american groups, pacific islanders, and the maya all have left rich mythologies that teach a strong relationship between people, animals and habitat. Many stories illustrate how one may learn skills and solutions from careful observation of animals and the earth's cycles that apply to surviving and thriving in our communities and individual lives. People make sense of and navigate their lives by finding, or creating, meaning of all that we can sense. A snake may shed its skin to cleanse itself of parasites and allow for physical growth, but for a long time humans have included this process as an important metaphor in our own mythology. A reminder to allow parts of ourselves to die when they no longer serve us, and to revel in the fresh energy, or rebirth, the letting go of things kindles. As I seek to apply this method of learning to my own life, I realize that seeing animals and ecosystems as teachers directly impacts my ability to nurture and live in respect of my environment. So this tradition becomes a cycle of sustenance, reminding me that self-sustenance and sustenance of my environment are not separate, but co-dependent."
I paint and draw in a space between nature and dream. In nature, I try to see other life with the intention to form a relationship. Assuming nothing, open to everything. This kind of observation is a meditation practice, in which I find stillness, meaning and beauty. As with other forms of meditation, I find it enriches my sense of belonging to this landscape, and presence with it as it unfolds to my senses. Time is replaced by light, temperature, and the natural rhythms of the earth. Science opens its door to a countless wordless languages as plants, stones, water flowing, become familiar to me. And my own dreams find their way into my waking life, weaving into my awareness of my surroundings. Each moment contains the beauty I study in a landscape, the spirits and dream beings I discover therein, and the emotions coursing through me that make it all meaningful. From this way of being in the world a personal mythology springs, making magic between the lines, connecting me to a deeper truth.
Current Biography:
I grew up in beautiful Brunswick, Maine, nurtured toward art and an appreciation of the natural world by a mother with a green-thumb and a father in the sailboat world. I tried hard not to learn anything from them and I did not know that Maine was especially beautiful. I thought an escape from paradise was in order in 2007 and entered a faster world when I moved to Philadelphia to attend Moore College of Art and Design. The city was exciting and I could not decide what to do with it. Tired of school, but owing it one more year, my friends and I put a lot of energy into starting up an art collective and arranging multi-disciplinary creative nights in gritty spaces in popular neighborhoods. It got us to graduation. In 2012, six of us bought a bus on Ebay and moved onto it for six months, attempting to escape schedules and break down assumptions we held about ourselves. It was painful and beautiful and transformative and I will not need to do it again.
The bus broke down in Asheville in 2013. I moved into the Landing that summer. A year an a half later, I felt the call of the hermit and moved into a little cottage against the Big Ivy forest in Barnardsville, NC. It is here I have found the way back to my roots in the woods, near the water. I am putting myself through the education my parents tried to give me, revelling in dirt and plants and the movement of the seasons. I divide my time between learning about nutrition, medicine, biology and botany, and dreaming, singing, painting and writing. A growing community of passionate, curious and creative people engaged in the natural world keeps me sane and in love with a home so removed from the bustle.
Past Artist Statements:
From the Shadow series:
"With these three paintings I am delving into a place that is neither entirely conscious nor entirely spontaneous/subconscious. Rather, I see the imagery as a fusion of the two, drawing heavily from dreams and visions that occur to me in meditation or physical ritual. I can offer some perspective by mentioning that, while creating these works, I have been exploring the tradition of animal medicine and spirit guides from a variety of American tribal cultures, spending time with and observing animals, reading and reflecting on ideas presented in the iChing (such as passive and active creativity, presentness, and a spiral path) and also regularly recording my dreams in writing when I wake each morning. A major impetus for all of these areas of study and reflection is a strong belief in our responsibility to rejuvenate and contribute to our oral tradition. The wisdom that will allow a culture or community to become in harmony with each other and our planet is found in its collective memory. So, today, I think it is crucial to value our stories, whether they come from our waking experience with each other and the earth, or from the realm of dream or shadow. It is all valuable, all with the potential to teach."
From the Dream Medicine series:
"I've been day and night dreaming some intense visions of animals, art forms, and landscape all of which feel tribal and old to me. These images have been an impetus for and a reflection of a recent exploration into animal medicine from several tribal traditions; various native american groups, pacific islanders, and the maya all have left rich mythologies that teach a strong relationship between people, animals and habitat. Many stories illustrate how one may learn skills and solutions from careful observation of animals and the earth's cycles that apply to surviving and thriving in our communities and individual lives. People make sense of and navigate their lives by finding, or creating, meaning of all that we can sense. A snake may shed its skin to cleanse itself of parasites and allow for physical growth, but for a long time humans have included this process as an important metaphor in our own mythology. A reminder to allow parts of ourselves to die when they no longer serve us, and to revel in the fresh energy, or rebirth, the letting go of things kindles. As I seek to apply this method of learning to my own life, I realize that seeing animals and ecosystems as teachers directly impacts my ability to nurture and live in respect of my environment. So this tradition becomes a cycle of sustenance, reminding me that self-sustenance and sustenance of my environment are not separate, but co-dependent."
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