Bringing Ghosts to Life
I know it’s been a little quiet over here on the ol’ S. Cross Art front (I can hear those crickets, too…), but silence is a result of the process of transition I’ve been going through, and I’m excited to share the creative gems coming from this process…soon. A couple of months ago I (finally!) decided that I’ll catch up with NYC at another time, and that my heart is pretty set on expanding my roots further here in Vermont. I can’t walk away from our South End yet, and most importantly, I really can’t walk away from Borough now. So, here I am! Even though I’ve been here for nearly 3 years, it’s still been a HUGE process to “make it work” for me, and adjustments have had to be considered.
So, back to the art! The cricket noise you’ve been hearing over here is actually going to continue for a bit. As you may or may not know, although my studio/gallery is located in Burlington’s thriving art district, I live 45 minutes outside of that, nestled out in the countryside amongst the cornfields, regular fields, pastures, and alongside the lake (Crickets galore. At night it’s sometimes necessary to yell to hold a conversation that can be heard over them). It’s been so beautiful out here lately, so I’ve set up a temporary studio where I can continue to work amongst this ethereal atmosphere and incorporate it into my new paintings. It’s creating a nice juxtaposition with the incredible noise I have hammering in my head, and the results are sublime.
view of one of the fields I've been painting in
Oh so quiet
As I’ve mentioned before (and is apparent when viewing photo details on the “paintings” page), writing plays a large part in the creation of my paintings. Usually my writing weaves in and out of the painting process; shaping up forms, bringing colors to life and setting a backdrop. Now, however, writing is playing a larger role in all of my work as I draft entire stories (as opposed to prose) and fill notebook after notebook before any painting takes shape. This has allowed my imagination to soar and confirm my own voice, setting the scene for a new series which is underway now. As I paint I punctuate these stories with brief, illuminating, lines, which casts light within the dark shapes on my canvas. It’s an interesting process, and I find myself playing the role of storyteller more and more as the narrative of the paintings becomes more defined. This new direction is dark, I must warn you, as I seem to go about purging my dusty inner corners and skim the top off shiny ideas to get to the bottom of fears, doubts, guilt, ghosts that haunt my dreams, projected futures and romantic notions. By nature my personality is not dark, so I’m relishing rummaging through my darker imaginings and letting them breathe a life of their own. I’m excited to share some of these new stories (including attempts to drown out the noise in my head (which only resulted in drowning my cell phone), tales of the murder and resurrection of love, wild animal bouts, stars serving as saviors, ghosts inhabiting bodies in the form of sleepwalking), but I won’t do that until I can post the finished paintings with them.
For now, I’ll leave you with a glimpse of one of these new paintings, which is actually a painting I’ve been working on since last fall. Completion feels so good, ahhhh. It’s currently featured at S.P.A.C.E. Gallery on Pine Street in Burlington as part of the show, “The Art of Networking”, which I’ll write about later tonight. I’ll also leave you with a photo of the place where some of my best writing comes about…halfway between dreams and grogginess, listening to the sounds of coyotes, crickets, train whistles, and every now and then the call of a distant owl or moose. More soon, I promise.
"Anything That Would Scream (as I live and die)" Oil on canvas, 52" x 30"
