Wind Angel

Wind Angel

This painting was included in a solo exhibition at the Cape Cod Museum of Art.

It was painted in my yard on Cape Cod, and has pine needles, small rocks and a paper match embedded in the layers of raw pigment and oils.

The red and orange underpainting is barely visible beyond the blues, greens, reds and pinks. This is one of the only paintings when I used the raw pigment still in powder form, it's visible in her hair, especially.

We lived on Cape Cod for four years. The Cape holds deep meaning for me. Our son was born there and my mother is buried there.

I loved living on the Cape. There's an earned depth to the people there that I related to and respected, and a history that my family was honored to be included into. We moved from the Cape to California not long after my mother passed away, around the time I had the solo show at the museum.

I've always had a strong connection with the ocean, and with traveling to unknown places. I've lived in more locations than I can count and drive cross country 18 times without a map. I connected with the maritime history of New England and learned all I could about the ships that sailed from Cape Cod, Nantucket, New Bedford, Gloucester and the people who sailed them. And, whatever I couldn't learn, I imagined.

When we first moved to Cape Cod, I took an interest in the railed perches I was seeing on the tops of the old Captain's houses. I asked a woman at the Four Seas ice cream shop and she told me they were called "widow's walks". Women walked those perches looking out to sea, searching for their husbands, brothers and lovers to return.

This painting is a tribute to those women, and to anybody who is missing their loved ones, searching, waiting, longing, wondering if they're warm and dry, hoping they're safe, and sending love.

She is a Wind Angel, looking out to sea, watching over all who journey. She's also looking to shore from the sea, to comfort all who are waiting at home.

This painting is also a tribute to my mother, who spent so many years looking out to sea, watching out for me, while I journeyed.