Acrylic on canvas

16” x 20”

2018

This body of work now hangs in its new home at a local insurance office, where the goal is to help their people feel protected, BE protected. In a similar way, this work is a product of me feeling supported and safe enough to stretch a little farther, play a little more, and take risks that are a little different than in other work I’ve made. Risks and challenges are essential aspects of continuing to make interesting and inspiring art, and I’m not sure how readily I would be able to keep striving for that if I felt unsupported or alone. I got the guts to paint these in a more playful way, using quite different color combinations and laying paint down boldly on top of other marks, because I was reminded that I am not alone. Now I’m left with a body of work that’s quite different than things I’ve painted recently and it’s work that I’m pleasantly surprised by. Continuing to involve my love of nature, this time I added in some more playful ways of referencing rain and lakes and sunsetty blossoms. 

I often see the lessons of artmaking mirrored pretty perfectly in metaphors of my life, and that has remained true while creating these works about protection and safety leading to the ability to explore and play. These days I’m paying attention to this idea of being able to uncover and dig in to new things when we feel supported...whether that’s expressing new emotions, sifting through religious baggage, playing with new color palettes, beginning to heal from childhood wounds, etc.

In boldly exploring emotions and paint palettes, and in risking pain and “messing up” paintings, this process has reminded me to keep being vulnerable, so that our safe people can know when we need support, to keep trying to be a safe place for others to feel secure, and to play more, risk more, explore more...because, really, we are not alone.