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We are born into mystery and as we grow, so does a sense of longing. It is a restless drive that propels us to keep searching, learning, and going deeper to find our way on our journey through life. It is a spiritual longing, a longing to understand the mystery. It can take us on many paths of exploration, but when the longing draws us toward nature, we are immediately confronted by beauty and wholeness, and the deep satisfaction of that journey is the realization that we are an integral part of and at home in that mystery, and that we belong.

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I believe in the transformative power of art. My art is an invitation to enter into the stillness of nature.  In these large scale, intimate works, I try to draw you in and keep your eye moving through and around the painting as long as possible, seeing the time it takes to explore the light and  shadows, color, and forms in the paintings as a way to move deeper into the richness and mystery of nature and hopefully to bring a new awareness of these into one's experience of the natural world.

 

I view my time working in my studio on these paintings as a time of meditation. Bearing witness to and becoming immersed in the complexity and beauty of nature is a remarkably calming and tranquil experience. I offer the painting itself as a meditation, an opportunity to have an experience of quiet renewal that opens to the transcendent beauty of our world and brings us into closer harmony with Creation.  In the frenetic modern world which we have created and which demands more and more of us and our time and removes us further and further from the outdoors and the natural world, my work is a reminder that nature is our home, and perhaps an answer to the longing for connection, meaning, and our place in the world.

 

We are filled with wonder and awe as children. If we are lucky enough to be given the opportunity to have a relationship with nature as a child, the experience stays with us and is important to our sense of belonging in the world. My love affair with the earth began in childhood, and I have spent my whole life falling farther in love with nature’s gifts.  It began at my Grandmother’s ranch in the Texas hill country. It was a magical place where spring waters gushed out of the ground onto smooth rock beds; ferns and watercress thriving in the crystal clear, cold water. This place was imbued with a sense of time, both natural and man made.  There were petroglyphs on the overarching rock ledges whose meaning was lost to us.  Countless flint arrowheads and spearheads, corn grinding metates and other items left from thousands of years of Native American campgrounds continually surfaced after rains. More recent records of travel were seen in wagon wheel grooves right down the middle of the rock stream bed, a testament to settlers pushing west. It was there I fell in love with the night sky. We saw the brightest Milky Way in the blackest sky, woke to roosters crowing in the new day. This was magic for a child.

 

As an adult those memories were a lifeline to something essential, deep inside myself. It was a sense of belonging and being a part of something so much larger than my world. I couldn’t go back there physically, but I returned time and again in my mind. 

 

This spirit of place forged a longing in me to rediscover ever after. I have come to see it as my sacred communion with nature, one which I have nurtured and been nourished by in my life and through my art. Over the last 40 years I have developed the same love of place in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. It is there I feel most at peace, one with Creation. It is where I dig in the warm, crumbly soil to plant my garden, marvel at the changing seasons, and watch the moon rise over the mountain. It has fed my soul and my art. I have attempted to instill my paintings with that same sense of enchantment with our world. My paintings are about the clarity of winter light on bare branched trees, the emergence of spring, the luxurious blossoms of summer, and vibrant fall foliage, the miracle of loss and renewal of our deciduous forests, the everyday gifts of the garden, the mystery and vitality of growth and decay, and ultimately our relationship with the earth. 

 

We are of this earth and part of Creation, but there is an undeniable spiritual connection which is often made manifest through transcendent moments in nature when we feel such a strong connection with something greater than ourselves. These are sacred moments which call us out of daily concerns and make us more alive. There is often a sense of homecoming or belonging in these experiences.

 

Our lives are so enriched by the gifts of nature, and yet technology continually pulls us farther away, demanding constant attention.  My art is an invitation to rediscover the gifts of the spirit that nature offers us...refuge, renewal, restoration, and inspiration. Our souls are nourished by nature’s beauty, power, drama, mystery, and transcendence. For too many people, that sacred communion has been broken and this break is causing major harm to us and the natural world.  My paintings are an invitation to begin the journey of recovering our sacred communion with nature.