An American Garden in may
A series in oil on Birch
“An American Garden in May,” is a series in response to the Uvalde school shooting in May 2022. The teachers, students and families could have been members of my own South Texas community and for weeks when I closed my eyes, I was in a blood-soaked classroom or with parents waiting for hours to find out if my child had survived. I was horrified and grief-stricken and though I needed to overcome the pain and return to my own family, it felt disloyal to forget the victims and just move on.
Painting was, of course, the way I knew to process, and I looked to flowers. I was drawn to the symbolism of chrysanthemums, used in death rituals around the world. Petals seem to reach out like many different interactions and interests of a person’s experience. I wanted to paint a memorial for the people killed in Uvalde, but I also needed to see it within the larger story of gun violence in America. I chose to focus on all other gun related deaths involving a young child during the same month- 28 separate incidents. Drawing on news stories collected by the Gun Violence Archives, I selected flowers and groupings that reminded me of the information I found. The process- though painful- was enormously insightful and allowed me the opportunity to look at the issue beyond the dominate rhetoric as told through reporters and pundits.
With this series, I explore a new way to approach my subject. Whether violence to ourselves or our planet, I believe beauty has the power to cushion and make accessible unimaginable realities. I see this series as an invitation to sit with and consider what are ok accepting, and when is the time to work for change?
Painting was, of course, the way I knew to process, and I looked to flowers. I was drawn to the symbolism of chrysanthemums, used in death rituals around the world. Petals seem to reach out like many different interactions and interests of a person’s experience. I wanted to paint a memorial for the people killed in Uvalde, but I also needed to see it within the larger story of gun violence in America. I chose to focus on all other gun related deaths involving a young child during the same month- 28 separate incidents. Drawing on news stories collected by the Gun Violence Archives, I selected flowers and groupings that reminded me of the information I found. The process- though painful- was enormously insightful and allowed me the opportunity to look at the issue beyond the dominate rhetoric as told through reporters and pundits.
With this series, I explore a new way to approach my subject. Whether violence to ourselves or our planet, I believe beauty has the power to cushion and make accessible unimaginable realities. I see this series as an invitation to sit with and consider what are ok accepting, and when is the time to work for change?