At the end of 2019 I relocated to Portland, Oregon from the rural Rogue Valley of Southern Oregon and downsized from a two bedroom house with garage into a tiny basement apartment. My new home is the downstairs of a friend-of a-friend’s family and a whole new way of functioning for me as an artist and as a person. I haven’t lived or worked with other people since…well I can’t remember for sure…maybe ten years? At any rate, it’s different, in that I live with a small family that has become my “pod”. Although we are in different areas of the house, we overlap a lot more than most since I also rent my artist studio space in the same building where the adults of the couple work! It has worked out extra well during this whole Covid day/nightmare, as we can all work without masks (unless others come into our space) and it’s so much of a relief to not constantly have to be concerned about getting sick either at home or work at least. Small mercies.
Practically as soon as I got here, got unpacked, and got settled into my new working studio everything began to shut down due to the Covid virus that was quickly moving globally. I knew almost no one here and lived in a new city I was pretty much completely unfamiliar with on top of everything.
Then George Floyd was killed by the police in Minneapolis. An unbelievable act of unnecessary violence against yet another black man who was already in handcuffs and subdued. As I write this, we await news of the final legal decisions facing his killer and pray for justice. In the aftermath of that killing, I joined an online group led by a wonderful woman out of Tennessee to help me learn from and connect with other allies and folks of color wanting to confront our own beliefs about racism and how we can do and be better as people and learn a new way of being. My thinking deepened and I ended up creating this piece during the lead up to the 2020 election season, The Foundations of Our Democracy.
Stained glass, porcelain tile, and colored mortar on a handmade substrate
Based on readings I had done years ago, I was well aware that our nations’ “home” had been built not just by slaves, but on the land of indigenous people and their blood, sweat, and tears. This image came into my mind and wouldn’t let go, so I decided to create this statement piece for a couple of shows I was in up in Port Townsend, WA, and then in Lincoln City, OR. These two shows were the only ones that still ran, despite having booked four for the year. I’m happy to say this piece eventually sold to the fabulous mosaic artist and teacher Kelley Knickerbocker of Seattle.
After months of protests in Portland, many starting right down the street from my studio at Revolution Hall, it has begun to quiet considerably in the neighborhood as folks have begun to put energy into getting vaccinated and staying alive. I also created a piece around this time based on the many drive-in vaccination sites around the nation and the world.
Stained glass, smalti, millifiore, acrylic paint, and mortar on a handmade substrate
In this new year of 2021, I am grateful that things are finally moving slowly in a better direction toward fighting this virus, opening back up slowly and safely, and bringing us back together to fight another day for racial equality, gun control, and reproductive freedom of choice. Our democracy had become far too complacent, and we now know we must be ever vigilant in our mission to promote change in a more positive direction, one that favors kindness and support over corporate greed and profits. humanity and justice over fear and ignorance. We can do so much better.