Knoxville, TN

Painting

Staring out the window in the backseat of my parent%u2019s Buick LaSabre, I was fascinated by the landscape that whirled by. I looked forward to the day that I could drive the car myself, and turn off on the side streets and dirt roads that weren%u2019t on the map.

In my adulthood, I realized that is how we now see the great American landscape, through the windows of our cars. Those old barns covered with kudzu, simple white churches and warping dogtrot houses %u2013 ghosts of another place in time %u2013 will continue to fade as we build bigger and better spaces. Yet, the simplistic architecture becomes almost modern, abstract forms dotting fields and farmland. For some reason, they are haunting and enchanting to me, and have become the focus of my canvases.

I try to incorporate movement or texture and an aged patina in my paintings. I work in acrylic, but I am known to throw in plaster, scraps of paper, or anything on hand to add texture, which probably puts me in the mixed media category.

I am a native of Knoxville, TN, but graduated from Samford University with a double major in art and journalism and received a master%u2019s in art history at UAB. After living in Birmingham and most recently Cullman, my husband and I moved back to my hometown. I always feel at home when I%u2019m in Alabama, though. In fact, my grandfather grew up in Frisco City, so I think it%u2019s in my blood.