Print of original painting. Printed on 100% acid free cotton rag paper.

Original:

Black walnut ink, goldenrod, river water, and hand embroidery on cotton.

55”x55”

2018

I embroidered this cliff swallow separately and decided later to incorporate it into this painting. This painting is of my friend Kris. As she posed for this photo shoot, she moved her hands and arms around her like a slow meditative dance. She has this beautiful quality about her that mesmerizes me. She is playful and soft and sophisticated and wise all at the same time. Its so beautiful. They say everyone in our life is a reflection of us and I have noticed in the portrait series that I have been making that I often see qualities in the women I’m painting that I want more of in myself. Or maybe they are deeply hidden qualities that I already have that are longing to come out and into the light. I do believe that we learn so much about ourselves through the people in our lives who grab our attention. For me, Kris is definitely one of those people.

“The Way Home” comes from this quote by Martha Beck,

“The way back to my real environment, the place where my soul was meant to exist, doesn’t lie through any set of codes I wil ever find outside of myself. I have to look inward. I have to jettison every sorrow, every terror, every misconception, every lie that stands between my conscious mind and what I know in my heart to be true. Instead of clutching around me all the trappings of a ‘good’ person, a ‘successful’ person, or even a ‘righteous’ person, I have to be exactly what I am, and take the horrible chance that I might be rejected for it. I can’t get home by cloaking myself in the armor of any system, social, political, or religious. I have to strip off all that comforting armor and go on naked.”