Optimism helps Painting

I grew up in a small town in America. I found it for the most part boring and always wished to be somewhere else where more was happening. I eventually went to a bigger city to college and then on to the biggest city New York when I graduated. This is where my wish to be somewhere else went awry. I met my husband, who is Swiss, and we ended up living in his home country.

In time I have learned to, if not love, really appreciate this place too. It is however really really far away from where I grew up and I find myself wishing I could go back home to the boring little town where I grew up. The very boringness of the place is actually the big draw now. It lends stability for a child growing up to have everything a routine that you can count on. Because it is a small town, you know the people and the place inside and out and as one gets older there is a certain comfort in a place that is so familiar and easy.

My artwork is constantly dealing with this theme of where home is. For the longest time I painted female images that were nearly flying and at the very least had no roots and were on the move. Now I am painting more and more places that I have encountered on my lifes journey. The places themselves are sort of fleeting images as if they were a dream or a memory that is just being remembered or just fading. I am still not fully rooted in my adopted home country but I am finally accepting that my mind is the biggest help or hinderence in feeling at home, and not the place that I am actually standing. My work is benefiting from this mindset in that there is a visible comfort and intimacy with the places and people that I paint.