I took a humorous story to read aloud during my first writing workshop -- a workshop where everybody was in tears, talking about their pain and how they were writing instead of getting therapy. I sat there thinking, "Oops.” I left wondering, “Where’s my angst? Better get me some if I want to be a writer." I've been looking for my angst ever since.
It got worse when I began painting. Everybody knows artists are supposed to fight inner demons while they starve in garrets. Well, I was raised Southern and it's hard to starve when every occasion revolves around food. My subdivision has covenants against garrets. And the major demons in my life are mosquitoes and the neighborhood rabbit that eats my delphiniums before they bloom.
As for angst. Well, everybody has rough patches in life and you either deal with them or you wallow in them. I've had the usual miseries -- divorce, troubled teenagers, insensitive bosses, nosey neighbors, cancer, unkind friends, family deaths -- but while I'm not a Pollyanna, I'm also not much on wallowing. So you won't find a lot of dreary images in my work.
I didn't want to be a writer or an artist when I was six years old. The world has not kept me from being either. I've always been a reader and loved museums but it never occurred to me to dream of an artistic life. I simply started writing and painting and fell in love with both. And other folks seemed to like my paintings, which was nice because I ended up with more paintings than wall space.
I don't have the formal art school training to explain my work in the lingo most artists use -- you know, that high-sounding fluff you never understand. I paint what I like. Lots of flowers because I'm a gardener. Landscapes that catch my eye. Old buildings and antebellum homes I run across while researching my historical novels.
I don't think images on the internet do justice to oils or watercolors, but I'm posting some pictures anyway. Plus, I'm not much of a photographer -- maybe I'll take that up next. In spite of that, I hope you'll find a painting you'd like to buy -- I need the wall space again. |
