December 4

Do you have a particular landscape memory - one that has stayed with you since childhood? Is  "beauty" defined by what is comforting and familiar to you? I know that my love of the salt marsh is my holding on to memories of Sea & Ski on my nose, watching my parents and brothers swim and fish at Pawleys Island, SC every summer. I remember with fondness - slugging through the pluff mud in the marshes. I could still hear the ocean roar over the dunes, but here....life was a little quieter and in some ways more mysterious. It was a joyous time for a child.

Certainly, this residency has awakened that child in me again—a chance to feel exhilarated by a new relationship with the edge of the sea. When I get out of the car at Bunatrahir Bay, the salt air shouts welcome to me. I tried a few paintings around 4:30 but the light was dropping fast. Bats were flying over my head while the seaweed moved in mysterious ways on the water's edge. I finished these in the dark.