The show, In Contemplation of the Sacred Water, Earth, and Sky. Most of the paintings were completed this year and featured the land in and around the Osage Prairie and our land in Cherokee County.
Since childhood, I have been drawn to the quiet places. Whether climbing the mountain before my home or wandering along the bank of the creek behind it. It is in those secluded spaces where I first experienced wonder, creativity, and gratitude. Today, they remain the places where I find my spark.
I am a lifelong student of the land. Under the guidance of the late Cherokee wildcrafter Jackie Dill, I began to see the "bounty beneath my feet." She validated what I already sensed, that we are part of an intricate connection to water, earth, and air, reinforcing my belief that we are not merely residents of this garden, but its tenders. Now, as a forager myself, I can no longer walk through the woods without actively observing. I see the abundance of trout lily, poke salet, and lamb‘s quarters; I recognize the medicinal herbs and the hidden clusters of wood ear and oyster mushrooms.
But this intimacy brings an ache. Joni Mitchell’s warning— you don’t know what you got till it’s gone —-they paved paradise and put up a parking lot—is a constant hum in my mind. In Oklahoma, I see the encroachment: massive poultry farms, the mechanical drone of data centers, and the chemical footprint of corporate agriculture. These forces threaten the very purity of the water and soil that sustain us.
When the weight of this feels overwhelming, I act. I write, I advocate, and educate. But perhaps my most vital act of resistance is to simply sit in nature with a brush and canvas. To be quiet, to be observant, and to be grateful. These paintings are the physical manifestations of those sacred moments.
