For the last three years my paintings have revolved around a prose piece I wrote entitled, “To Hear The Forest Speaking”, and in the early part of 2011, the work segued into a series  “The Deepness Within”.   The forms that were emerging felt unknown, but similarly familiar.  For me this was their gift, their revelation, that I could begin to recognize some small thing, and awaken to the miracle of everyday that often lies hidden beneath our modern veil and forgetfulness. Then last winter, new work came, small intimate pieces on vellum incorporating drawing and excerpts from my writing. It was as though through the physical action of drawing the lines and writing the phrases over and over, I was conjuring and giving reverence to an old world, yet a world that we inhabit now, if we listen, and feel and remember.  This group is called ”Pieces Of Prayer”, and my current paintings, though larger and involving more color, are a continuation of this journey.
“My paintings evolve from an introspection, and are like poems to me, coming out of an awareness, a sense.  There is surrender, an aspiration to a holy moment.  How we perceive and feel, the nebulous space between the physical reality of a given situation, person or place, and the perceptions we carry, the curiosity and non-linear ways of looking at time.  Rene Magritte states,  “Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist.” My hope is that my art inspires our human community in a way that gives credence to soul work, to the woman with birds waiting to fly out on the canvas, keeps company with the young man writing a song, the child conjuring a poem, finds affinity with free dancers.  This comes up through everyday living, influenced by the natural forms I see daily, the actions of people in my life, my writing, and finds its way to the surface through the process of painting.”

To Hear The Forest Speaking

You have to give up your cell phone.

Your computer, radio, T.V., blackberry, video game, ipod, stereo.  The contents of your refrigerator, your pantry snacks, coffee, alcohol, give it up for this day.  Your hair color, scenting your body, making up your face, shaving.  Put down your tools, knives, pens and hammers, pots and pans, your boomboxes and briefcases, brooms and vacuum cleaners.

Put down your guns, cut the engines, unplug the cash register, ground the plane.  Leave your watch at home and your jewelry, your papers, books, vitamins, pills.  Leave the hospital, the office, the nursing home and factory.  Close the school, the bank, the mall, and your purse, leave it home.

You have to get out of your automobile and walk,

like a human, into the woods.  You need to go so far in,

you don’t know your way out.

Now listen and breathe, and listen beyond what you can hear, look beyond what you can see,

feel the pulse of a tree, your arms wide open and receiving.

You can’t imagine how beautiful you are,

when we all come to find you.