A Shifting Landscape, 2020
An online exhibition of work made during a stay-at-home order.
Everything is online now. I hate the internet and I am so grateful for the good ole internet. The internet feels like this necessary evil that is only evil when I’ve had too much, like chocolate or booze. The internet is changing my landscape. Kind of like coronavirus and staying home EVERY. DAY.
Staying home was already in my job title pre-covid (shout out to SAHMs!), but social isolation has really heightened that reality. Being an artist and mother are two of the most isolating roles a person can play; so being an artist and a mother during a pandemic is the ultimate trifecta.
Hence a shifting landscape.
Uncertainties & Peace
acrylic on raw exhibition canvas
36" x 24"
Uncertainties & Peace
Maybe the title says it all, but this piece is the stormiest of daydreams.
I’m still painting West Coast daydreams, but some of these pieces are more frenetic and less stable. Some are apocalyptic and some are post apocalyptic, serene after the dust has settled.
These works began right when we began self isolating as a family in mid-March. Happy Spring Break! I was relieved to have my husband home and there was some sort of bubbly, nervous anticipation about what was going to happen in our world. The first couple paintings I finished during this time are darker and stormier daydreams.
I would sit and stare at the canvases for long bouts of empty brain. They were tough paintings to finish because they kind of scared me.
As the weeks passed, we settled into new routines and moved through some of our anticipatory grief and shock. It was hard to let myself process that stuff and not just be in denial and forced “productivity mode.” But as I allowed myself to feel (and sit around a bit), I was able to find more flow in the studio. Then all of the sudden I had this body of work staring back at me.
So here it is, A Shifting Landscape, my current expression of these strange times and feels and moments of uncertainty. Please enjoy the images below and a few more thoughts intertwined.
A Landscape Staring Back at Me
acrylic on raw exhibition canvas
36" x 24"
A Landscape Staring Back at Me
Shapes and lines that represent suns and mountains and trees and shaky ground and restful moments and minds in shock of our current state.
A Shifting Landscape
acrylic on cotton paper
7” x 5”
In a recent interview with the New Yorker, Kim Gordon (artist, musician, mother) said,
“And social media, the Internet—I mean, there’s no going back. Using it for ways it maybe wasn’t intended is good. But what intention does it have? It’s only the people behind it. Technology is like nature—innocent.”
I desperately wish I could deliver these paintings to you in person. I wish that you could stick your nose right up to them, see their edges and feel their presence. I want to see your face as you look at them for the first time, take them in. Instead, I share these digital, backlit images of paintings I made during a time I wasn’t really allowed to leave the house. And I’m grateful for all of the innocent zeroes and ones that make this possible.
My Festival Lifestyle is On Hold
acrylic on cotton paper
12” x 9”
A Certain Settling
acrylic on raw exhibition canvas
36" x 24"
A Certain Settling
This is about the breathing that keeps our feet on the ground.
Finding Flow
acrylic on raw exhibition canvas
36" x 24"
Finding Flow
If we keep showing up, it will come.
Thank you for taking time with this work; may it bring you peace.
If you are interested in acquiring one of these paintings, see available work here or send me a note.