2018: tenderness is lighter than air
TENDERNESS IS LIGHTER THAN AIR
solo exhibition at LeMieux Galleries
December 1, 2018 - January 25, 2019
almost three years ago I abandoned my regular life and the comforts of civilization for over 6 months to walk the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. during that journey the few fellow wanderers who knew what I do in my other life would sometimes ask: “how do you imagine this journey will influence your artwork?” I didn't have an answer beyond the knowledge that it would. I couldn't have known then that there wouldn't be beloved mountains or streams or trees in my paintings as a result, and that the influence would be about feelings more than anything else.
while on that 2200-mile walk I would frequently sit on mountaintops after pulling myself and 20-30lbs of necessary belongings up the difficult wild trails, no energy left to keep up my barriers, and I would look out: heart cracked open, feeling at one with those mountains, the chipmunk scurrying by, the rhododendron bush beside me, feeling no more nor less important than any of them, my heart filled with tenderness towards and connection to them. the heaviness of life, its often overwhelmingly heavy burden, falls away in those kinds of moments. what is left is gratitude, lightness and tenderness; a tenderness that can bridge divisions between us and our environment, between each other.
this series of paintings is an expression of these feelings.