All Around

A photo of doors leading out from the Iona Abbey, on the Isle of Iona in Scotland, are intertwined with two other images: one of the chapel of St. Margaret at the Edinburgh Castle and the other of a meadow that was carpeted with beautiful purple flowers.  I wanted to convey fluid borders of beauty and the Divine.

Size (h x w) 14" x 11"

Media: Original digital print on arches paper

SOLD

Meditation

Meditation. An image of a window opening within the ruins of a Nunnery on the Isle of Iona, Scotland, is combined with a labyrinth that was created in the sand on a secluded little beach.  Together they create a quiet, meditative space of solace.

Size (h x w): 14" x 11" (matted and framed)

Media: original digital print on arches paper

AVAILABLE

Overview

This piece is a visual overview of the beautiful country of Scotland.  The interior and exterior perspectives simultaneously frame the alluring green landscape by the sea with the aged structures that hint of days long past.  It is created from an image looking out a window of the Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull and an image of lamps on old stone walls within the Edinburgh Castle.

Size (h x w) 24" x 16"

Media: Digital photography on canvas

AVAILABLE

The Way

Time to start posting new work created from my Scotland imagery!

The Way

A small chapel sits behind the Iona Abbey on the Isle of Iona.  I would guess that not everyone who visits Iona even ventures into this humble, overshadowed space.  

It was very quiet and peaceful-- a thin place for me.  The light coming in the window of the dark chapel made the silhouette of the cross a focal point.

I overlaid this shot of the window and cross with a photo of the Iona Abbey courtyard to create a perspective that leads to, or through, the cross.

Size: (h x w) 24" x 16"

Media: Digital photography on canvas

AVAILABLE

Sacred Voices exhibit

The Sacred Voices exhibit opens Thursday, Dec 5, 2013 along with the St. John's Bible exhibit at the Canton Museum of Art.  Sacred Voices features Jewish, Christian, and Muslim artists whose artwork is inspired by their faith.

I have been working as a guest curator on the Sacred Voices exhibit for the Canton Museum of Art for almost a year now and am so thrilled with how it has shaped up.  Honestly, researching and selecting work for this show has been so deeply rewarding.  As a person who takes my own faith very seriously in my life and in my artwork, it has been such a delight to find so many others whose artwork is an extension of their faith.  I think that for an artist of faith, art making can be such a valuable way of living out and processing your beliefs, while also sharing them with others.

For Sacred Voices I sought artists whose faith seemed embedded in their creative process and whose work conveyed a spirituality and depth of belief. This is obviously a very personal perspective, but it was the driving force of my curatorial process.  I gravitated toward work that was contemplative, poetic even, in how it drew you in and prompted you to experience the work, regardless of your faith as the viewer.  It is not about differences, it is about how faith inspires art, AND how art inspires faith!

There are 60 works featured in this exhibit created by 37 artists mostly from the US, but also from Australia, Austria, Canada, and the United Kingdom as well.  I have had the wonderful privilege of meeting many of these artists when I picked up artwork in person on the East Coast and Midwest, and am excited to meet some of the other artists who will be attending the opening reception as well.  

If you are in the area, I hope you can come to this exhibit.  It is open until March 2, 2014.

http://www.cantonart.org/

Community

"Community" is a kinetic sculpture that I designed for the McKinley Manor neighborhood. It is part of a neighborhood revitalization project organized by Community Building Partnership to help build neighborhood identity and pride.

After speaking with residents, I came up with this kinetic sculpture design to help capture the identity of this neighborhood. The sculpture is intended to represent flight/abstractions of airplanes, since this neighborhood used to be the site of the first local airport in Canton.  It is also meant to reflect community, with the arms open wide, moving and interacting with each other (as wind currents move them on the Timken bearings.) Special thanks to the Timken Company, Beaver Excavating, Canton Erectors, Morris Bros. Scrap Metals, Ernies Bike Shop, Aaron Brown, Doug Gialluca, and the students at Madge Youtz Elementary School for helping make this a reality!

This sculpture, dedicated on November 15, 2013, is located at Madge Youtz Elementary School, 1901 Midway Ave. NE, Canton OH 44705.

Symbols

Newly hanging in my studio from my Assisi Thin Places body of work...

Symbols

Mount Subasio, in Assisi, Italy, is said to be a sacred mountain.  On Mount Subasio there is a cave where St. Francis would go to pray and contemplate.  It is called Eremo delle Carceri (Hermitage of St. Francis). 

The whole area near the cave is rich with symbols, from the frescos in the oratory leading to the cave, to sculptures in the hillside, to a variety of crosses, including humble, rough hewn crosses embedded in nature.

I like the mystery of symbols and visual metaphors.  I was especially drawn to the more natural, subtle symbols. I phototransfered two images onto a wood panel.  One image is of an outdoor chapel just down the trail from the cave.  It had an old tree stump with a small cross carved into it and a twig that also looked like a cross.  I fused that image with one of the door that opens to the oratory and cave.  Together they seemed to portray a beauty in subtlety.

Size: (h x w) 24" x 16:
Media: Phototransfer on wood panel (maple)
AVAILABLE