"Living Things" Exhibition at Southside Gallery in Oxford, MS

There is little difference in creating paintings from creating poetry.  Words can describe experiences, just as marks of line and color do.  Both strive to abbreviate the infinite into a manageable package while continuing to convey the breadth of life.  "Living Things", the title for this exhibition at Southside Gallery, is taken from a published collection of poems by Ann Porter, wife of the famed painter Fairfield Porter.  In the forward to the collection of poems a connection is made between painting and poetry as both being "intimate letters".  Primarily through the use of still life I am aiming to create intimate letters with my work.  These are observations of things of this world, which may not have ever had breath or may no longer be growing, yet still retain the spiritual sensitivity of living things.  

I have been fascinated for the past couple of years with the dynamic nature of palmettos which are represented in several pieces in this exhibition.  In Natasha Trethewey's poem "South" she says of palmettos that they are "symbols of victory or defiance". They are a common woodland plant here on the gulf coast, dramatic in their radial spread, but they seem to gain more dynamic life as branches die and dry out.  The branches are normally cut off and thrown away at this point, but this is the point where I most appreciate their movement and their ability to dance while sitting still.  The only reason to paint something is if we see the poetry in it.

Mrs. Porter observed in similarly inquisitive ways, looking for beauty in the nooks and crannies of our world.  In her poem "Living Things" she questioned the reason for poems, as she says one might similarly question the reason for the existence of warthogs.  She continues, "But once our life gets into them / as sometimes happens / Our poems / Turn into living things / and there's no arguing / with living things".  

The observations conveyed through drawings and paintings in this exhibition are in themselves reaching past the static nature of a still life.  Through the use of light, color, and composition life enters the work and they become living things.