Description

What inspired you to paint Familial Drift?

This painting is about change.  About how, over time,  families part, members find their own way, and they become a different kind of continent in our lives. We’re still connected, but you can see it better deep down in the tectonic plates that are still shifting.  We look different and will look entirely new in time, and with a few tremors and earthquakes.  As a mom, just thinking about the time when my kids were so small, and we were such a tight family unit, now, the shifting is obvious and profound.  We have changed so much.

This painting is kind of weird, but small, and meaningful.  I’m not sure beautiful, but interesting.

What were its challenges?

Small is frustrating because you can’t avoid it.  A larger canvas there might be parts that feel and look good and you like. You have something to cling too. But small, nothing hides.  I struggled all over this one, just like I struggle with the change of my own family over my own lifetime. This painting was many things before it became what is.

What techniques did you use?

In the end, I used the technique of just letting go. Trying something completely different. And then deciding to like something different. There are a lot of layers here and it felt like I was building and carving, building and carving.