One thing I love about having a studio sale is that I never know what good things will happen! During Spotlight North Open Studios the editors of Bracken Poetry Journal stopped by to take a look at my recent drawings in The Fragility Project. I am honored to have the series featured this month, in the latest issue of this beautiful publication of poetry and art. Accompanying the drawings is a short essay I was invited to contribute about the process of drawing. I hope you will take time to visit and enjoy the summer’s collection of fine contemporary poets.
It is a summer of exploration along the borders of photography and painting. As I move back and forth between media each influences the other. The photography becomes more painterly, and the paintings take on the intensity of atmosphere and mystery embedded in film. I have been steeped in memory of my father’s darkroom in the basement of the farmhouse where I spent a good part of each summer. There, no matter how hot the fields or the huge hay-filled barn, the air was cool. I loved tagging along at my father’s side in the drama of the red light and velvet darkness. Paper was precious, and at any moment there could be a mistake. Dust, light leaks, entire rolls of film gone mysteriously black and a soft stream of sighs and curses, until an image emerged from the bath of chemical chiaroscuro just right. These are for you, Dad.
The best words of advice I ever heard, while jumping into the car with my boyfriend for a roadtrip to California: run barefoot in the grass
I will be leaving for Wales and Ireland at the end of July. Wifi permitting, I will try to post from the road. If you hear nothing from me, take a peek at my Instagram: I may have gotten lost on the River Wye. If that is indeed the case, and if you have a spare border collie, please ship, insured and with a tourist visa, c/o Somerville House, 12 Bodenham Road, Herefordshire.
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