Time to pick a song...any ideas?

Time to pick a song.

I've been avoiding this.

The song, in regards to a body of work, always tells the real story of where I am.

Echoes was the first song for my very first collection. It was during probably the hardest time in my life...and these lyrics:

"And no one showed us to the land
And no one knows the where's or why's
But something stirs and something tries
And starts to climb towards the light"

My art was the light..and in all of it; I knew that if I kept towards it - I would succeed.

That same summer I was given my first solo exhibition. I was also gifted a cash register that I was disassembling and using as the assemblage portion of my show. The song was "Cash Money" by The Beautiful Girls (who sadly just played their last gig together last night in AUS.). The song represented
a lot of things that I was going thru at that time...I was just starting to do my art full time. I was single, living alone, putting myself out there and fronting as the artist/person I really was. The real me.

"Cash money,
aint got no use for you.
Unless you can buy me true love.
And it's funny,
how many time's they've proved,
that the only true fortune you can save,
is the truth."

I titled my show "True Fortune" and to this day it is still a collection that I strive to measure up to with all "themed" shows there after.


Valentines Day rolled around and even though I'm not a big fan or celebrator of consumer generated holidays. I thought that having a show around this one would give people an alternative option for something to do. "Cant Help Falling in Love" was the Elvis song that I choose because 1. I was trying to appeal to a larger clientele, and  2. because of this lyric; "Darling, so it Goes"...So it goes; such meaning and history with those words. This was a time in my life when I was letting go...and still celebrating loves that I had had..without regret.

The next show was titled "Lost and Found" and the song was Echo and the Bunnymen
"Lost and Found"

"She will tell you her cathedral
has no windows and no doors
and you know she doesn't need you
and that's why you want her more...

As your heart melts down
you are lost not found"

The windows and doors theme is prevalent in my work and as I approach this new collection for Asheville; I am relying heavily on these visuals for inspiration. This was a body of work where I was trying to distract the viewers with color and whimsy...but also emotionally depict the moment in time that something is lost...and the same in the moment that you find something. A split second that weighs heavy on us.

Moving to North Carolina...I was gifted with new visuals - I finally surrendered completely (on my knees) to my art. This was it; no turning back. My first show was titled "Circles" and the Tori Amos song "Cloud on my Tongue" constantly stuck in my head while I was painting this collection.

"Someone's knocking on my kitchen door, leave the wood outside, what,
All the girls here are freezing cold.
You can go now, you can go now, you can go now, you can go now."

Ok..I'm going to start to pull this together so it makes more sense: Consistency is key and the art, lyrics, words, subject all tell a story. I always hope the art is as good as the music that inspires it. That it tells as story..that the story is personal yet universal in many ways. Intimate, evoking yet spirited.


At the Cloud on my Tongue period I was really wanting to be left alone. I just wanted to paint, and work and just...leave the wood outside, - you can go. The reoccuring theme of doors, windows, etc is evident here...
and throughout each collection and each of these songs inspired the next two shows.


Sinew, Fiber, Heart.
I still suck air when I say that. My second (now) annual Valentines Day show.
The song was "Desperado". The lyrics "Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate"

Its hard to believe this was less than a year ago.  Its hard to believe that I'm still the same person...
that this artist has won; she is steady. She is strong. She believes.
This collection was about the things that hold us down in regards to our heart.

Moving on to July, my summer show. "Black". If you could see me right now you would know that I have shaken my head in the realization of how heavy this all weighs on me. The lyrics, "Oh, and twisted thoughts that spin round my head, I'm spinning, oh,
I'm spinning, how quick the sun can drop away"

Mermaid Down. Is she still down? if it's true that the song and the art tells my story - what will this next collection say? Where am I? I'll tell you where I am right now...

I'm still avoiding picking a song.

The original idea was all about the swoop. The way the birds swooped into the valley. The body of work needs to tell the story of the rivers, and the movement in them. Undulation. Sway.

The opposite of static. 

Originally I was leaning towards Iron and Wine, Flightless Bird...Maybe tomorrow when I start throwing around this wood it will come to me....