"The Painted Lady"

The Painted Lady is a peak poised majestically above the Rae Lakes, along the edge of Glen Pass in Kings Canyon National Park. When I first met her on a trip I was guiding in 2010, I was so awe-struck I could only muster a photograph to remember the depth of the color and the wisdom in the face she wears.  Since then I’ve carried around that photograph, and last year I started working on the title painting in this show.

Six months later however, I was at a standstill because I couldn’t remember why I wanted to paint this piece, or at all anymore. So I decided to let the Painted Lady guide me. I went back and spent three days camping nearby so we could spend time together. So I could listen. 

Mountains have a way of revealing themselves over time. It is the same for how long it takes to hear ourselves amidst the clamor for more. Watching the depth of her contour lines shift with the sun throughout the day, I witnessed my own mind soften so I could see her more clearly. Sometimes the details our brains think are important - elevation, rock composition, density, weather - bear little weight on the soul.

Her body is a steadfast shape, but one that is bathed in shadow and light. Recently I lost my grandmother who lived to be 99. I was there when she took her last breath. She was the one who always encouraged me to paint. In a way she has become the Painted Lady.

In this body of work I am exploring transitions, hers and mine. I am drawn to the edges between the shapes and colors that leave the most lasting impressions on my mind and in my body. Those that soothe and awaken; and those that call into question and reorient me to curiosity, instead of my fear of death. These pieces are the biggest I have ever painted so you can stand in front and be embraced.

Some of the paintings include interactive elements that invite conversation and contemplation. 

Many of the written elements come from the past two decades of reading and writing poetry. The mixed media nature of my work highlights the layers of self present in the experience and intentionally reveals flaws, frames the imperfections and calls into question our expectations of conventional beauty and traditional landscape painting. 

The Painted Lady asks us to be less practical and precise, and instead much more open to the shape, colors and textures that form and define our experiences - in our lives and of a particular landscape.

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