Longing: Small Work from Ireland

During my annual residency in May, 2023 at The Ballinglen Arts Foundation in County Mayo, Ireland, life took an unexpected turn. I was ill the entire month--a week of Covid followed by subsequent fatigue. These small, spontaneous works on paper suited my available energy level and satisfied my need to keep working. They measure only four to five inches per side and are done with various water-based and drawing media, including, ink, gouache, acrylic, and charcoal powder.

In retrospect, I see a depth of emotion to these that I wasn’t fully conscious of at the time. They are infused with longing for what illness denied me during my residency—the long, solitary walks I always take in that beloved Irish landscape. These images come completely from memory and emotion, small love notes to a place that has come to mean so much to me. (Individual pieces are untitled and are not currently for sale.)