Snake In The Grass

The Rattlesnake Creek Dam residency was to take time for myself, take time for health and art and spend time with something that I could relate to and learn from. In my art, I find myself constantly chasing a child-like mental clarity. This memory comes to mind when I was about 6 or 7, spending a summer's day at a lake smashing rocks with water to make a face paint. I worked all day loving the consistency and how the rock broke down, smearing it all over my body, not caring about anything but what I was doing. Something about rock beds and water systems makes adult stresses diminish. Looking at those surroundings of the landscape, insects, water flowing, plants, flowers, patterns in the river rocks then taking them to my art process gives me small adult moments of that childhood clarity of existence. The methods of Scagliola by mixing plaster with pigments and glue-water then smooshing the mix into the carved-out wood are much like a grown-up version of my day smashing rocks at the lake.