The Intimate Side of My New Landscape Art Collection
I spent the beginning of this year with my creativity. It was bliss to reconnect with my pigments and fall into a friendly routine of discipline. Writing my new book, A Geology of Color gifted me so many beautiful things but I deeply missed the familiarity of my artwork.
Though, this current body of work began long before the start of this year. Prior to the wake of the global pandemic, I found myself traveling amongst vast landscapes that rendered me with many earth stories. I fully lived in this deep abundance of inspiration that this season of creativity offered. What I didn’t know was the season that followed would return home to a year of isolation filled with hardship and pain, learning and growth, trauma and joy.
Throughout a long period of isolation, I carried the weight of these landscape stories. Each one becoming more and more tangled in a web of memories. They felt so familiar and yet so foreign. They were comforting—taking me back to the adventure, but distant—losing grasp of their presence. I experienced a pool of emotions, each one imposing their priorities on my wellbeing.
I slowly traveled through my thoughts, holding onto glimpses of what felt like another life. I grasped at every last bit of these fragments, seeking a false sense of normalcy shattered by reality over and over again.
Then, I did what I know best. I picked up graphite sticks and raw pigments and began moving them across textured canvases. With every landscape, marks danced new beginnings. The gestures sang together to form orchestras of images. It was harmony discovering these landscape lines—a rekindling of a long, lost exploration.
Our memories can hold onto the most precious moments. They can shapeshift images and impose expression. These thoughts can transport us through the most difficult of times, taking us back to friendly places overwhelming with tended wilderness’ waiting to hug us in her beauty.
What We Remember, a new collection of deeply nostalgic landscape drawings will be available in Summer 2021. This collection is paired with several poetic meditations, all of which will be shared over the duration of the next few months with those on my email list. For access, share your email below. Together, we will continue to explore the intimate beauty of nature.
