An Artist’s Journey to Self
in the Landscape
I am an artist. But 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.
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 something of us.
It’s a vulnerable feeling. Showing our work. Exposing ourselves.
When another feels a pull to a work of art, it is what the viewer needs.
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.
It is a celebration of light. Of color. Of movement and detail.
I feel myself in it. I am part of it.
All of us have been gifted with our own experiences of this land.
Pay attention to it’s sights, sounds, smells.
Slow down…. Stop.
Recognize your own well being in these lands.
They are sacred. For the benefit of us all.
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.
(Painting: Oval Beach South)
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.
(Photograph of the trees)
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.
Here— we have had this wild natural space in abundance.
As an artist, As I paint, I have lived closely in these places.
I have seen… I have experienced the natural areas dwindle and change slowly, consistently, progress encroaching upon this sacred environment.
(Dune: finished painting)
Our wild spaces need us to pay attention. They cannot protect
themselves. It is our RESPONSIBILITY to protect them.
For the sake of us all.
(Photo: Sunset over Lake Michigan)
To this end, I have a great deal of respect for the Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance. They work tirelessly to protect our wild natural areas. For the benefit of us all.
I ask you to support them in supporting us.
They are our neighbors and friends— advocates and stewards of our local lands and waters for as long as I’ve lived here.
(Painting: Sunset over Lake Michigan)
Of the 40,000 photos I have taken of this landscape and my paintings—
The 20 you see here today— that pay homage to this land—
Were created in lands the Coastal Alliance has saved.
No kidding.
Treasure these wild spaces, respect them, Care for them.
(Photo: Rose on the top of Lake Michigan Dune)
I am moving. It is necessary.
I am returning to my birthplace and childhood home in St. Louis.
I have been grieving this imminent loss.
For I have experienced LOVE in this landscape. The love that comes from
it’s constancy of nurturing and care. The soothing balm that is time spent in it’s infinite moods. All a Gift.
(Painting: Clouds over Oval Beach: South View)
I don’t quite know how I will go forward without my daily walks in it’s presence. It is my safe place. My healing place. My teacher.
My companion. My muse. My strength.
(Photo: Single Tree on the Intercostal Dune of the Natural Area)
I go to the land that I know so well and I find myself.
In these wild natural places.
I feel at home.
I am in the process of trusting that this land— it is within me. That I will carry it forward. That it’s powerful gifts will remain in me.
(Painting: Single Tree on The Dune Top, Watercolor and Monoprint)
I hope for my paintings to be a celebration, a prompt, a call to experience and protect these vista’s. These exquisite places.
I’m sharing my work: A Goodbye and an Artist’s Moving Sale.
At my home on Friday, October 24th. 3:30-8:00pm.
You are welcome.
(Photo: Finn and I (Rose) in the Natural Area Dunes walking North)
This landscape. What it has meant to me. My work. My life. It has helped to heal me. Possible save me. Let it call you to action. To continue to protect it. For your own well-being. For all of us.
My work will continue to evolve. This landscape will continue to be my constant muse.