"Windows"

Columbus Learning Center

Columbus, IN 

Exhibiting Until May 2027

“Episcopalian Irises” and “Corner Irises” 1500 ea.

Watercolor and charcoal on paper, archival framing

The St. Paul’s Episcopal Church entryway is often gardened by silent workers, tending and weeding during the growing months. These irises grow up each May, from bulbs planted long ago, multiplying new tubers and blooming new flowers. In the distance, one can view neighboring homes, whom Episcopal parishes love and serve. The black and white shapes contain all that a congregation supports: birth, death, marriage, illness, despair, and the pure joy in daily life.

“Local Crows” and “The Heron” 600 ea.

Acrylic wash on found window blinds

Following the style of Zen landscape paintings, 50 foot trees dwarf the artist’s home. The same trees are depicted from different angles, one with a group of crows who visit daily, and the other with a heron, only seen this one time. The crows are a noisy group who visit the north-east Columbus, IN neighborhoods. The heron landed one tearful day after the artist’s grandfather died. Her last conversation with him was about a heron standing on his pond. 

“First Home, Last Home” 750

Graphite on found vinyl window blinds

This drawing began with a tracing of the artist’s body, beginning with her head as her childhood home, with tree roots reaching into the ground. The roots evolve into a high church, with turrets and a rose window, a rubbing of tatted lace, symbolic of the women in her life. Saint statues in the niches symbolize her tall grandfather and not-tall grandmother who were married for 70 years. Light leads both into and out of the sanctuary. Pigeons are disrupted by something, maybe someone leaving or entering.

“Window to Heaven” 750

Graphite on found vinyl window blinds

This drawing was created with graphite rubbings and fingermarks. The window frames are rubbings made with graphite-covered fingers over grout lines of the tile floor at the artist’s church and studio. The heron is the same depicted in other works, visiting her after her grandfather’s death. He stands on a sphere, symbolic of Earth, and the flying heron as a shadow flying to heaven. The shape of the circle appears again, but lighter, obscuring a dark door-sized rectangle that often appears in the artist’s work, as a symbol of darkness