Red tea kettle and two jars on striped table Painting

Dark Hallow; light between the shadows I find that traveling abroad brings me the greatest inspiration for new colors and compositions. However, during this pandemic I have come to peace with finding my inspiration within my own home and backyard. Having to forgo a fall residency to Switzerland, I decided to embrace the boundaries that Covid has brought to my life. Though these limitations and hardships seem very small compared to the despair of so many, I have tried to be attentive to this time and what it may be speaking to me. I granted myself two weeks of artistic freedom to experiment with new color, jewel-toned inks, and a new visual language to express the variety of feelings and forms that surround me right now. Dark Hollow Rd. is a dirt road off our gravel street. “No Trespassing” signs hang from rotten hemlocks. Howls of threatening dogs and occasional gunshots echo across the valley. But even in this darkened place there is a tender hollow; a small shelter, a silent place, a sweetness of hallowed ground. Brown briars yield to violet hue, vibrant green leaves fade to splendid gold and rust, strings of soft cotton puffs crawl down thorny, thistle branches. I believe grace can be found in the gloomiest places, light in the darkest corners, and life even amid the dying.