I love to paint. I always have. The two main series of paintings that I’m working on the fish, and the southern gothic, are a strange combination I suppose. They developed over time, and are inspired by South Carolina…the low country with its fantastic beaches, and the kudzu, pine and honeysuckle covered mountains where I live. I love them both, land and sea side by side. The scruffy beautiful mountains are where my roots are, the oceans are where I dream.
The fish series is driven by color and the fabulous reflections of scales that a slimy little fish dazzles the world with. The textures in the fish are really important to me…I scratch scales and fins with the wrong end of the brush, smear reflections here and there, and then finish it all off with a thick as butter pattern of circles.
Why? because it must be so.
The southern Gothic series is close to my heart. I’m a northern born southern transplant, and I am fascinated by the tangled mess everywhere. There is always darkness and blooming, withering, and coming to life all at once. The seasons are blurred here in the upstate. Camila shrubs bloom in the winter and magnolia trees lose their leaves in the spring. Death and life sit side by side in an embrace of shadows and light, which is very much how our lives are. There are seasons in life, but those seasons happen side and often overtake each other. The lines between bitter and sweet are blurred in the blessed ordinary time that we all given.