Present and accounted for...

You may have noticed a drought in my blog posts over the past year;  I, like the rain, went elsewhere.  I had the opportunity to create work for a one woman show that opened last September at HPBC as a part of their neighborhood outreach and celebration of the Arts in the Austin community.  The exhibit was grounded in liturgical music, originally designed as a part of an Austin hosted Choral Conference, hence the name, A Visual Doxology: The Faith and Fabric of our Life.

The exhibit was a collection of works of a universal spiritual nature.  I took my visual intent and assigned a hymn and scripture to each painting.  There were 40 works in the exhibit with some pieces representing my work over the past 10 years and over half of the show recent work from the time period of April – September 2013.   It was not only a spiritual journey for me; it was a trip of enhanced awareness filled with experimentation. 

These are the walls and staircase of the wonderful exhibit space at HPBC and the entrance that greeted visitors to the show.  

Judith Latimer was the curator of the exhibit and I am most grateful for her encouragement and guidance.  

This photograph was taken of me in a rather saintly pose (I honestly didn’t know this was possible!) as I did a walking tour for a group of visitors.  The painting is The Heart of the Matter and was done in February, 2013, as a part of my visual Lenten meditation, exploring matters of the heart and how we manifest care and affection in our relationships.

Other works from last year’s Lenten meditation in the exhibit were:  I Can See the Goodness of your Heart...

Convergence...

and Heart Shield...

  

Works that were created for the show and inspired by favorite hymns of my childhood were Shelter (hymn:  A Mighty Fortress is our God)...

I Will Lift You Up (hymn: On Eagles Wings)...

Hills of Gilead  (hymn: There is a Balm in Gilead)... 

...and Circle of Life  (hymn: May the Circle be Unbroken)...

  

I used my favorite painting for the cover of my exhibit brochure:  The Face in the Mirror (hymn: Here I am Lord)...  

This work was done using a brayer painting technique that I experimented with during the past year.  

These next three are small, basically intuitive paintings where I respond to the thin layered color and textures that occur when paint is applied randomly with a brayer.  I took this technique and developed a series with the added dimension of using a hand carved linoleum block print.  This process created images similar to that of batik fabric...

I was honored to have C. D. Weaver (Dean Emeritus, Student Life) invite me to exhibit my show at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in January through mid-March 2014.  The show, which offered the opportunity to exhibit my work in a different environment, was in the main hall and staircase of the McMillian Center during the annual homecoming conference of APTS Alumni.  Here are some photos of the hall, including the staircase, which was a wonderful exhibit space for the tonal paintings that require natural light to allow the darker nuanced color to be discerned... 

An example of these tonal paintings is seen in the Road to Golgotha, from my first Lenten meditation series...

A couple of other favorite paintings from that series are Prayers from the Garden...

...and two of Easter: View from the Tomb...

and View of Calvary...

Since the show closed, I have been working on a series that began as this year's Lenten season visual meditation on Memories.  Selecting a limited number of experiences from my childhood that have bearing on who I am and how I choose to live my life today, I set about making an effort to interpret them in watercolor.  As with many of the paintings in my exhibit, a significant element is my interpretation of feeling and giving that emotion a visual image.  We know and recognize the feeling of joy, of grace, of a blessing and such but do we know what they look like? 

These are my visual expressions of the roots of emotion that accompany those memories.  This first one came from riding my Schwinn bike at the age of 9, wind in my hair, free to explore the paths and byways of Groves, Texas.  I call it Freedom...

This second one conjures the pleasure I anticipated, dreaming about owning a box of 64 Crayolas at age 7.  Choices...

...and the third recalls the concentration required to learn and succeed playing jacks under the sheltering cedars at Groves Elementary as a 8 year old, 3^rd grader.  I call it Focus...

And lastly, the utter disgust I felt at the age of 10 on July 4, picking ripened figs in the humidity of a Texas Gulf Coast Summer day, Sticky (this is a work in progress, so it may evolve further)...

The free expressive style of these watercolors was inspired by the painting Heart Shield, from last year’s series about relationships  (see top of post).

The inspiration for the memory paintings was a result in part of seeing the Irish film I Could Read the Sky, directed by Nichola Bruce, with its wonderful cinematography, staring Irish author Dermot Healey  (click here for a sample from the film).  I was further influenced by my memory of attending pre-primer kindergarten at age of 4 in Groves, as captured in this painting of some years back, No Sanctuary...

Memories are of significant experiences, little vignettes with the power to influence us all the days of our lives.  Some memories are good… some, not so much.  But it is what we do with the lessons of those memories that matters.  All of the experiences that I shared in this blog have met my personal bucket list in some fashion or other, all significant.  But most importantly, I did not miss their lesson. 

Last, but certainly not least, I'd like to express my appreciation to all those who attended one or both of these exhibits.  Your presence was a gift, and I was touched by your comments and support.  Thank you so very much.