2018-2020
In January I lost my Mom. After four long years of watching her deteriorate from dementia it was a struggle to be creative in any way. Then Covid hit in March and my once lucrative art licensing career came to a screeching halt. Manufacturers stopped creating new products that required art and design. I could no longer afford my outside studio so I moved back home and set myself up in a spare bedroom. In retrospect I have come to appreciate that stretch of time of isolation as a gift. It gave me nothing but guilt-free hours of playing upstairs in my treetop studio. For our sanity, my husband and I bought a couple of kayaks and spent more time outdoors paddling around our lake. Those days outside provided comfort, solace and so much appreciation for my surroundings. Growing up my Dad had instilled in me the wonder and beauty of nature and although I didn’t immediately connect the dots, I was learning that nature was becoming my muse. My previous style of (gifty) art and illustration, dictated by art directors, was officially over. This was the beginning of exploring mediums and processes in an effort to find my own way of expressing myself and my love of nature and in particular, the landscape.
These are some of the artworks that came out of that time period.
Click to enlarge and see the full image
During this time I also enjoyed stretching canvas on the wall and slapping paint abstractly, then putting together this series of artsy totes. Unfortunately the cost of materials and time, made these one-of-a-kind pieces of wearable art far too expensive to sustain itself. The ones I made were fun and they did sell but I quickly realized I did not want to become a one man factory and I preferred painting to sewing!
