Grounded.

“Grounded” Solo Show

Opens at Gallery Wild in Jackson, WY opening March 7th

Join us for an opening celebration 3/7/25 from 5-8pm

This show features 23 new, contemporary encaustic and cold wax paintings that explore what it means to be grounded.

In the fall of 2024 while walking a labyrinth in southern Utah, the Universe sent me a message - which was to “get grounded”. So naturally, “Grounded” is the title of my new show, in which every painting features “ground”. Not all of my landscapes historically have ground in them, in fact many of my encaustics are just trees and skies, the horizon line back out there behind the trees, hidden essentially.

But with the cold wax paintings, they’ve been almost exclusively ground, and that idea has very much filtered into my psyche - as though I had been missing a critical element in my diet, as though I am craving dirt and needed those essential B vitamins. So with this show there are distinct horizon lines in each painting - a foreground, a middle ground, and a back ground. This may seem outlandish to traditional landscape painters who always include a foreground, but for me it feels like a revolution.

The message I received while walking that labyrinth back in the fall was essentially to plant myself in the ground so I would shine brighter and be stronger. In winter, that’s not the easiest of tasks when you have feet of snow in your yard. I don’t really have a green thumb and indoor plants aren’t my thing, so getting grounded is very much a work in progress. I think I’m shining a little brighter, and I wish I were an expert already so I could tell you the secret to my success, but I’m not sure yet.

I am still learning how to ground myself. I know much of it involves just being present, but perhaps I am looking for a spell or a ritual I can perform no matter the season to connect me into the vibrant network of living things and Mother Earth. I am fantasizing about planting trees, raised planter beds, creating a labyrinth in my yard in the summer. I am pondering which plants and twigs I can use to make my cold wax paintings - for scraping and mark-making. I am touching rocks any chance I get as though they can imbue me with their strength, and when I pass by trees, I touch them too in acknowledgement and silent thanks.