160601 Painting

My artwork is about being authentic, editing the world, editing my life to what is the truth. Going beyond the things I have done or acquired, I find myself to be abstract—like my art. With my painting, I want to create and evoke a visual pathway to experience spirituality. I hope my art encourages others to self-reflect; that it makes them stop, pause, take a breath, and contemplate. I hope it is a respite that is lifegiving, empowering, and supportive of self-discovery. I was born and grew up in Greenwood, a town in the Mississippi Delta (USA), where creativity and culture are a way of life. During my undergraduate education I explored the many ways of processing the world visually, studying landscape architecture, interior design, and fashion design. I worked in New York City as an interior designer at Bloomingdale’s, as Home Furnishing Coordinator for Bergdorf Goodman, and as Corporate Design Director at Estee Launder, Inc. I returned to Mississippi to discover a new level of authenticity. I lived there fifteen years in a house I designed. The work on my website is largely from that period. Over the course of painting, I discovered a calling from deep within. Painting became a spiritual practice. I learned I had to get out of my own way and allow myself to be available to it. I found the larger-than-myself source of creativity to be God. I served as Director of Camp Coast Care in Mississippi, a relief center for Hurricane Katrina, and became aware of my call to become a priest. I was the first openly gay person to seek ordination in the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi. From there I was called to be rector of a church in the Diocese of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania where I served for eight years. I retired in July 2021. I now live in Belfast, Maine with my husband and our cat.