An Artist’s Journey to Self
in the Landscape.
A Love Letter to the Landscape: presented to the Saugatuck Douglas Art Club.
Douglas, Michigan September 9, 2025
I am an artist. And I love words.
Combined with images. Powerful.
I am going to talk to you about creating, connection, gratitude, suffering,
healing, grace and…. love, and the responsibility that comes with
love…but ultimately it’s about love.
All of it— tied to the landscape.
The landscape is the Hero.
I came here 25 years ago.
Daily, I walked this land. In all seasons. In all types of weather.
My dog and I, sometimes with loved ones.
And if I am lucky with my daughter.
This land feels like a second skin. I breath it in. I breath it out.
Stephen Colbert when interviewed by Anderson Cooper
On Living with Grief and Loss, said,
“I learned to love the things most that I wish had not happened.”
This single sentence has been life changing for me.
To love the things most I wish had not happened.
A honing rod to GRATITUDE.
My son’s ashes are spread in these hills, these freshwater dunes, amongst the trees, on the lake. This land and water holds what I love. And it has carried me. I go to the wild places to find solace. And I find it there.
I came here 25 years ago.
Daily, I walked this land. In all seasons. In all types of weather.
My dog and I,
And if I am lucky with my daughter.
This land feels like a second skin. I breath it in. I breath it out.
Called here to CREATE. To PAINT.
There is something very intimate about painting in the landscape.
All seven senses are heightened.
I see it. I hear it. I slow down. I smell it. I touch it.
I stop. I taste it. I am in it. It is in me. I am fully aware.
My story, is the story of a woman, a mother, a wife, a sister, once upon a time a daughter, a friend, an artist, and my journey to self in the landscape.
This is just what happened.
I didn’t do it…. The landscape gifted this to me.
The HEALING. The GRACE. Is easy in the wild spaces that surround us here.
(Trees: finished painting)
Nature is proven positive for us all. Scientifically. Amazing.
It relaxes us. Allows us to rest. Calms our anxiety. Lifts our depression.
Fosters creativity. Alleviates loneliness.
Promotes feelings of connection to something greater than ourselves.
This is my experience.
As an artist, our work speaks of us, reveals us.
It’s a vulnerable feeling. Showing our work. Exposing ourselves.
When one feels a pull toward a particular work of art, it is what they need.
There is a CONNECTION. It is meaningful to both.
I strive to capture the landscape’s expansiveness. It is something greater than ourselves, yet connected to us.
I have my place in it’s vastness.
This celebration of light. Of color. Of movement and detail.
I feel myself in it. I am part of it.
Stephen Colbert goes on to say
“It’s a gift to exist. And with existence comes SUFFERING.”
“It is about understanding what its like to be more human,
the most human, more connected, more deeply loving.”
This is what I work on.
I am definitely a work in progress.
