Back in the woods....

 So I’m back in the woods, and here’s what I mean by that:

      It all started when we moved back to Indiana from Florida eight years ago. We moved here to help my in-laws in their last season of life. It was a decision that had been bathed in prayer and much discussion over a long period of time. Finally, the timing became clear and right. So we moved here, to my husbands boyhood home in rural Indiana, in late summer, 2013. Not because it was convenient (it wasn’t) but because there was a need and we were the best choice to fill the need.

       It took awhile but we adjusted to our new home and new responsibilities. David’s dad’s health was declining rapidly by the time we moved here, but he was gracious and thankful to the end, and I am so glad to have had the time with him that we had. 

     Once he passed, life and routine changed, especially in regards to my mother in law. David became increasingly wrapped up in her care, and she became increasingly difficult to live with. Without dwelling on that very challenging chapter of life, I will just say that no one saw the side of her that I saw, (that she saved just for me), but it was not pretty. I needed a place to go. That’s when I started going out to the woods. 

       The woods became my place of solace as well as my place to draw and paint. We are blessed to have a log cabin in our woods, which has sat empty for years. Eventually that log cabin became my art studio. I took an easel and paints out there and would spend hours in the peaceful quiet of that  little one room space. I started filling little notebooks as well as large canvasses with art that was “of the woods”. Here’s a few pages from journals I kept:

       I wrote this in 2015, and it’s almost prophetic now:

“I am personally drawn to the place like a hungry person is to a good meal. It feeds my soul to spend time out here. I have already formulated a plan for a body of work. Not jewelry, but mixed media woodland paintings. Part of it is so reminiscent of childhood, where I spent hours in the woods next door and across the street, where, in my imagination, I lived out there in the woods. That is, after all, where I would go as a child to talk to God. So once again I have come full circle to the cabin in the woods.”

       Once his mother passed, the property lines changed and the cabin in the woods was no longer available. We put our time and energy into the home and property that became ours. By this time I was working full time, and my time at home was spent transforming the old-but new to us house into our home. I continued to work at it a little at a time, and set a schedule of getting one piece at a time framed. My dream of having a whole new body of work “Of the Woods” was starting to look like a reality. In January of 2020, on the coldest day of the year ever, my husband and I set up and photographed my new art booth with my new body of work so I could jury into shows.

       Then came 2020, and with it all the shenanigans and show cancellations. The good thing about that time for me was it gave me more time in the studio. I had time to develop my art, and specifically this growing body of work “Of the Woods”.

     So now you know when I say I’m in the woods, it’s not a bad thing. I’m not lost in the woods, I’m not “can’t see the forest for the trees”, and I’m not even looking for a way out of the woods. I’m actually very happy to be back in the woods, and would like to invite you to come too. 

   Stay tuned for my schedule of shows for the 2021 season.

Interested in acquiring a piece?

Some of them are now in my Etsy store here