The Journey Home. My three paintings were accepted into Salem Art Association’s annual Radius 25 show, a show open to established and emerging adult artists living or working with a 25-mile radius of Salem. The theme for this year’s show is Walkabout: Paths, Journeys & Destinations. I immediately knew that my theme would be The Journey Home, the journey home for my dad, who died May 17.
I decided to use a previous painting (that my mother has hanging in her kitchen) as my inspiration. Here’s a page from my working art journal.
We were asked to write a process statement, describing our process and subject matter. Here is what I submitted:
My three Journey Home pieces were created by painting cradled wood panels with acrylic paint, applying a layer of plaster for texture and interest, sanding, scraping, then staining the plaster with watered down acrylic paint. All of this was in preparation for painting, which I did using a mixture of oil and cold wax applied with a putty knife. The subject matter is a further exploration of working in layers and its relationship to memory, something I began experimenting with over and year ago in response to my father’s descent into dementia. My dad lost his battle with Alzheimer’s just a few weeks ago and these pieces were created in response to his death.
Lots of layers and contemplation went into these three pieces.
The finished pieces.
The show runs from Friday, July 11 through Friday, August 29, at Bush Barn in Salem, Oregon.
