Artist in Residency

Today marks the beginning of my third week as Artist in Residency at Touchstone Center for the Arts in Farmington PA.

Touchstone is tucked away in the Laurel Highlands in the Appalachian Mountains of southwestern Pennsylvania. It's just a hop skip and jump from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob, Fort Necessity State Park and the Laurel Caverns. This secluded wooded campus is ideal for nature lovers and artists…of which I am both.

My painting studio overhangs a brook and the simple but tidy dorms offer spectacular scenery from the large windows. For contemplation, and sketching I have butterflys, swallows, visiting chipmunks, robins.

As I work with nature, I am amazed by the incredible textures, patterns and order found in nature. I feel that in that order amid chaos, there is another story to tell. Each small oil canvas created at Touchstone would be a juxtaposition of man-made objects against the glimmering world of natural design: ice patterns, fish scales, bark on trees and sun on grey river stones. In exploring how made-made objects break from these aesthetics I hope to explore the story of our relationship with nature.