There was lavender and olive, commissioned Millefleur 2022.

30 x 40 acrylic on canvas

Flora; Early in October 2021

acrylic on canvas 36 x 48

A World of Magic Things

acrylic on canvas 36 x 48

It was Spring of 2020 when I began to make this Millefleur series. My neighborhood is banked by river Tah-kee-os-tee. This, its Cherokee name for what is otherwise known as the French Broad River reflects this section of the river that flows through the River Arts District here in Asheville. It translates to something like, racing waters. I began a daily practice to walk by the river to watch the spring arrive. I was realizing myself as an eco contemplative artist as this time. Defining it as someone who is observing and exploring creatively the sacred and reciprocal relationship of the humans in the natural world. Limited by where we could travel to at the time, I concerned myself with the eco system of the river seeing it as an artery of life here. and wondered about what qualities it brought us.

What happened was a million blossoms both wild and cultivated opened up and opened up my eyes, woke me up from my pandemic stupor. They became a champion for me of transcending the darkness of that time, small portals of beauty to temper the world disorder. I have stayed with this practice as best I can and it has rippled out into everything I make and do. Steadily being commissioned to make these for four years now, they’ve become a meditation and a companion to my Portal paintings.

Two years ago, similarly I spent time with a rewilding meadow at Nead Fáinleoige and began the Wilding Millefleur series. These works are slow to make. To build these many layers of life for me is a metaphor of the layers of community and dependence it takes to make life possible. A symbiosis in a way.