The world has become smaller since the pandemic. I have left the wide expanses of landscape painting to focus on the world close at hand. This was not a conscious choice but rather an intuitive side-step. The incredible array of plants in all stages of life that inhabit my windowsills and abound in gardens surrounding the house call out in their silent voices. My solitary walks are slow and meditative, stopping to admire a brittle twig that rustles in the wind and marvel at a flower dancing with abandon in a ray of sunlight. To say that plants have inspired me would be trite. The rich, deep sense of beauty and mystery that embraces my mind while I paint goes far beyond the literal. It enters the realm of what Thich Nhat Hahn refers to as interbeing. It is only through the veil of my memory and imaginings of the botanicals that I travel freely in this timeless world where interconnection is the rule of law. Through the vast network of the mycelium, winding through twisted roots towards the unfurling buds, layers of cold wax and oil become my way of exploring that liminal space between nature and the imagination.

Beyond the botanical form, this narrowing of focus from the vast to the small details, has allowed me to look closer at my inner self, my growth and relationship to this new world that we find ourselves living in. With my recent body of work, I am seeking to find the balance between the darkness in the new normal of economic, political, and climate crisis with the optimism inherent in a world where things grow regardless.

“The career of flowers differs from ours only in inaudibleness. I feel more reverence as I grow for these mute creatures whose suspense or transport may surpass my own.” Emily Dickinson