The paintings are finished and photographed. The work is making its way to the gallery. My show, ‘The Interior of Home’ opens next week on Wednesday, 7 August 2019 at May Space Gallery in Sydney, Australia. It hangs alongside Alex Karaconji’s drawings and videos. Opening drinks are Saturday, 10 August 2019 from 3-5pm. All are welcome!!
As one body of work vanishes and other work begs for my attention, there is time to reflect over the last five months. Like our homes, the three paintings I completed over the past five months were deeply personal. They touched both the present and my distant, childhood past. It astounds me how present and powerful the past felt while I painted my family’s childhood summer cottage (Painting Titles: ‘The House That Never Stopped Giving’ and ‘Good-bye Cushings Island’). It was as if I were there, experiencing the sensations, reliving the memories and feeling the emotions. At the same time, grief engulfed me as the house I painted was sold in 2018. Every memory was tainted with sadness, regret and a physical discomfort. Sensations brought up tears. It was painful. At the same time, there was a bittersweet joy in painting a place I loved so deeply. There is no time in my life I feel more grateful for than the summers I spent in our house on an island in Maine. Painting the home where I currently live (Painting Title: Turning the Corner) also proved more challenging than I anticipated. It required a distance and detachment that I developed rather than started out with. After choosing a particular composition, the painting guided and directed me. It had a life of its own and I seemed to have to find that life rather than create it.
These paintings join five older paintings of past home interiors from my adult life and childhood. While I am aware that new is often considered best, I am most excited to see the relationship of these paintings that were made over the past fourteen years.
In a world where we often never stop, if you reflect over the first half of this year, what comes up for you?