SHOW

Text accompanying the show, 1/17:

The Island of Lost Joys is a private project for healing and memory. 

There have been thirty paintings so far. The paintings began when I started to feel like too much was being taken away from me. I wanted to stake a claim, maybe, and definitely to resist. They don’t share a coherent style, only a theme and materials (watercolor paper, watercolors, watercolor pencils, oil pastels, pencil, pen, chocolate). If anything, they are “pretty,” but, damn it, I’ve seen enough ugliness. 

All the Islands that have most lifted my heart have been given away, to honor painful loss or other struggle (divorce, death, transitions, cancer…A lot of cancer…). There isn’t an aspiration for the Islands beyond that small window of hope or refuge that, if we are lucky, the gift gives the recipient as the Island is received and kept.  

Therefore, these are the “dregs,” but they may still have something to offer.