INTERVIEW SHADES OF BLACK // AS LONG AS IT’S BLACK
I was recently asked to participate in a group show in Munich based on the theme of Black. Unfortunately, the work was held up at customs so never actually reached the walls, but I learned some things about shipping to Europe! This interview was one positive that came out of this experience. Here goes…
My first post is the artist statement for my show which recently came down at Thompson Giroux Gallery in Chatham, NY. I’ve never written such a personal statement before. Usually I talk philosophy and spirituality or the work’s connection to history. When I sat down to write this time there was no thinking. It wrote itself and I didn’t question.
This body of work was created over the course of a year. In that time, I have witnessed a parent’s struggle with dementia and the blossoming of a teenage daughter. I have watched the culture and landscape of America change in alarming ways. I have held a newborn. I have sold my first piece to a permanent gallery collection and been photographed with a celebrity on Miami Beach. I have both homeschooled my child and driven her to school for the first time in five years. I have experienced the terror of a cancer diagnosis and surprising changes to my body as the result of treatment. I have lost friends who couldn’t bear the pain of witnessing my pain. I have comforted my sister through her cancer treatment. I have danced at a friend’s seventies inspired wedding and eaten chanterelles and venison that my husband harvested from the hill where we live.
I am and am not the same person I was a year ago.
What remains unchanged?