Inspiration to my art…

My art tends to represent my experiences, passions and processing of them.

Geographic Regions: Born and raised in Asheville, NC the mountains are home in my heart but as a young married adult we spent 7 years in the mid-west plains, my mother’s home land before settling back in the piedmont in Davidson, NC. My father’s roots are in the deep south (LA or “Lower Alabama”), where the salty sea of the Gulf Coast filled much of my foundational years. All three of these places; mountains, plains, and sea, make their way to the canvas.

Gratitude and Grief: I am richly grateful for the wonderful things I have experienced in life. I have traveled 48 of the 50 states, lived in Poland, backpacked through Europe and traveled much of the modern world from Tokyo to Taiwan and Israel and Egypt. My life has been rich with joy-filled experiences and people from around the world. It has also carried many sorrows upon sorrows. I often process these joys and sorrows as I paint. Almost like a psalmist, beginning with lament and ended in gratitude, I may start with grief, but as the paint is pushed around, the healing, peace, and growth emerge.

Toil and Soil: I love nature. My family of four lives on a 1/2 acre “hobby farm” in downtown Davidson. (I know, that is ironic.) We have chickens, bees, a bunny and more. I love tending to my garden and creating spaces to invite community, places of belonging, and space to just “be”. I love leaning into the lessons of life from my Maker found in the rhythms of the soil and those who have toiled through life before me.

Painting allows me space to reflect, savor and give thanks for the awe-inspiring creations and events, “good” and “bad”, that have shaped my life and likely yours as well.

There is beauty all its’ own in the becoming.

-Susan