I made a little attempt at oil painting after not doing it for what feels like a gazillion years. Even though this put me super out-of-my-element, I feel ready for some oil painting plein air now.

 

Labyrinths 1, 2, and 3. Fluorescent and Iridescent Watercolors, India Ink, Gouache. 2020.

 Fluorescent labyrinths, 3 ways.

 

A few of my pieces at Jones Gallery in Kansas City.

The Flood.
Mixed Media (watercolor, India ink, image transfers, cellophane, tissue paper, maps of Camp Lejeune, NC, markers, colored pencil, charcoal, gouache, and gold leaf) on Arches paper. 60” x 26”. 2020.

 I’m a wild, warm animal,
conceived in Camp Lejeune where Marines are
trained to kill and Always Faithful.
My parents drank and bathed in the solvent-contaminated groundwater as TCE, PCE, and vinyl chloride formed my tiny vessels like map lines.
Benzene is my mother.
I have never been without her.
A few miles away, through the tall pines and past the intercostal waterway, I swam in the ocean - my body clean and new, baptized in the churning waves.

This altarpiece triptych has been in the works passively for over a year (I think I started it, like, -geez- October of 2018). It contains an amalgam of symbolism connecting to different aspects of my childhood - early memories of wonder and awe, internalized religious fables, family stories - and the process of integrating my past with the present. The woman in the left panel is my mother; my daughter is on the right. This piece has been gestating for a long, long time and I finally let myself hear what she needed to say in order to be born. 

 Making kites — Onslow Beach is the place where I first learned to love the ocean.

 Sketchbook.

My first art award — kindergarten, circa 1992. The concept was something about my dog, stuffed animals, and my invisible self flying in an airplane. First place in photography. 

 

Humility and the Things We Cannot Change. Mixed Media (watercolor, ink, image transfers, record, glitter, gold leaf, gouache, and marker) on Arches paper. 2019. 

About a year ago, I started developing scotomas (blind spots) in my vision. I’ve been to a bunch of doctors (and spent a bunch of money) and I still don’t have an explanation for why I keep developing the retinal lesions that cause these spots. As a person who needs to create in order to feel purposeful (and I do this most fluently with my eyes) this situation plunged me into a pit of anxiety and despair. I’ve tried to shift my mindset to practice gratitude and try to take things day by day, which is all we really have anyway.

What do you do when you can’t decide which fluorescent embroidery floss color to use? Obviously, use them all.

 

I made a felted/embroidered moon garland.