Moving into 2021

Today it's been 1 year since we were locked down with the global pandemic, Covid-19. In 2020 the gallery closed for 7 months. I painted 7 anxiety canvases including one called An Angry letter to our government for not having a comprehensive public health policy.

Family members became ill from Covid, we moved to isolation in our homes. People lost their jobs. All schools moved to on line learning. Teachers learned a whole new skill set. Women were required to work from home, manage children and on line learning, keep up with domestic chores and try for sanity. As we move into 2021 there's hope for vaccination and returning to some semblence of normalcy. Yikes that was a year 2020.

Over The Line, only by a narrow margin.

OVER THE LINE

only by a narrow margin

My first solo show of large scale paintings. 

Many levels of this show was a first. All of it an exciting challenge. Painting on canvas, the scale, the time, energy, physicality and mental space it took to paint big.  Look I'm a midwife (and yes I still call myself a midwife).  I am used to long hours and trusting the process.  The hard work of just showing up and doing the job. The anxiety of having a bad day, the exhilaration of having a great day.  There are many parallels between dance, midwifery and painting and I tried to find them all.  The one big difference was the solitariness of going to the studio and spending time with my inner self.  Finding the rhythms and patterns of the paint was like improving in dance, moving with intuitive intent.  The many layers of paint sometimes easily found, sometimes muddy and unclear. Believing, in the end all the children/paintings I hoped for would be just what they were meant to be. Some ugly, some beautiful, some complicated, some troublemakers, but all part of a coherent body of work that belonged to the same family.

Looking forward to the next challenge.

No longer a CNM

January 2019, I let my national midwifery license expire.  They sent me a letter saying I am no longer allowed to call myself a CNM.  I've been a midwife for 22 years and delivered over 2000 babies and although I've been a practicing artist the whole time, it saddens me to loose the title of Certified Nurse Midwife.  I have held the space and midwifed, women, children, families, and art my whole life. I cried when I received the letter.   Even though I have lost a title (which I am not sure I understand),  Doctors don't stop being MD's when they retire.

Moving forward, actively bringing all this chaos together.  Finding the rhythms and patterns of a lifetime of work and bringing to a cohesive conclusion. The conclusion is not yet and hard work with many layers of struggle is ever elusive.  Preparing for a large scale show with plans to include paintings, movement and birth. The struggle is real, the work is hard and it doesn't alway turn out how you think that is should. That's the power of art.

Painting on Canvas

Posting some of the process of many many layers, of my latest painting. This painting is a 48 x 48 on canvas stapled to my studio wall.  The early layers of characters are usually how I start while morning journaling and they don't really show in the end and yet I do tend to spend time on them.  In a sense those early layers are like the left brain talking.  Look at those muddy layers  that must happen before trusting that clarity will happen in the end.

Tumbling into New Year 2019

Tumbling I Oil CWM on Panel 16 x16

Tumbling II Oil CWM on Panel 16 x 16

Tumbling III Oil CWM on Panel 16 x 16

Happy to share this work at the Ghostwolf Gallery in Old Town Albuquerque NM

Orkney Islands summer 2018

Stones, Bones and Structures, It was hard to not be mesmerized by the harshness of the landscape.
Capturing the feeling of ancient,
Traveling is an exciting adventure,  working small in books with acrylic paint, ink and charcoal.
Happy to be home to familiar surroundings and appreciating the differences of place.

The Eye of the Storm and all its Aftermath

Hanging the show Paper Tangents turned out beautifully.  The work to prepare the gallery and get the pieces hung level on the wall was 4 x more work than anticipated.  Curating the show was a whole new interesting challenge which I now realize takes knowledge and skill, both on a psychological level and a technical level.  We had a successful opening and lots of positive feedback.