As a mother confronted with the harsher realities of our world, I struggle with how much to share with my children and how much they will understand. We talk about war, about what life would be like if we had to leave our home and everything we know for the unstable unknown, about poverty, disease and disaster; we talk about the environment and our effect on it, about the choices we make and how they effect others both in our immediate circles and on a larger scale, but sometimes I still hold on to the potential for magic, for fairytale. Fairytales are after all, most especially in the case of the Brother's Grimm, filled with the often unpleasant realities of life, mostly death and maltreatment. But there is a flip side to those tales, one of mystery, of curiosity, wonderment, exploration, overcoming and sometimes empowerment that speaks to me.
These tales offer a lens, a filter through which we can see and navigate the world; to understand that we can hold on to the joy and wonderment and curiosity that is not always right in front of us. It is with this idea in mind that I set out to capture various moments of my girls' childhood, to preserve them and possibly reveal an underlying story. There are conflicts and struggles and resistances in our everyday life, but there is also magic and oh do i love that magic. It comes in so many forms and flavors and with an abundance of possibility.
Last Spring I took a workshop with the lovely Leah MacDonald, she creates a magical world that speaks to me deeply. I left her studio with oh so many images swirling in my head and felt like I had come home in a multitude ways, crossed a threshold of mixed-medium art that made me tingle all over with excitement and possibility. The past few months have been busy and chaotic, but I've been trying to grab moments here and there to put the tools I picked up working with Leah into practice. This is where I begin, this wax, these images, a griddle and many brushes, my journey toward fog shrouded mystical landscapes, a rabbit hole of possibility. I hope you enjoy them!