Horizontal lines are commonplace to the Island…the sand meets the ocean, the ocean meets the sky. I was making pictures and pulled into Eastville Beach. Right away I noticed these barren branches sort of breaking up the view. This scene had that same evenness that I was so accustomed to but was then interrupted by these layered elements, a barrier of sorts. In this particular series of work, I was really seeking that sense of space and openness which can sometimes be difficult to find living on an island. In once sense, this image represents the feeling of vastness that being surrounded by ocean can bring while at the same time recognizing the boundaries that it can create.

I was taken with the quiet expectancy of the early spring saplings waking up into a new cycle of life in this Photograph. In the image, things seemed to be thawing from a completely solid state and I could imagine these brave little saplings feeling the life force slowly, tenderly and patiently awakening in them. They’re at the beginning of a life cycle, which will take them through the riot of summer and close them down slowly in preparation for the fall and winter before freezing them still again. The guitar piece I wrote wakes up slowly. It starts out of time. It states it’s major theme, which is the saplings beginning to wake up and get their sap running again and their buds out. It repeats a few times and then it finds its rhythm and life.

The Song for me sounded like a shy introduction. Listening to it, I felt like I was on a five note ride descending down a gentle right hand curve. The music was like an outstretched hand. I kept thinking about the north shore of my home. It too curves away to the right, at least where the points of land meet the sea. The line in the painting that guides the eye through the painting is my translation of the right hand curving melody line.

The first word that came to me from this Song was LIFE. I imagined life from beginning to end back to beginning. I immediately had an image of hands developing through the cycle of life including all different races. Listening to the music, emotionally I felt complete. I was at first contemplative then melancholic and then serene. The most beautiful pair of hands for me, were the ones beginning & closing the video. They belong to a man named Burt who Ed (Filmmaker) and I met at “The Sage Room” (the gay & lesbian community center in the west village). Burt was very reluctant to participate in the dance but Ed opened him up and made him feel loved and safe and said “Of course you want to be a part of this.” For me, Burt’s hands captured the beauty of the life cycle in my image.

Looking at this Painting I felt like I was on a cliff off the Coast of a European city; airy, windy, bright, and sweet. I frequently use colors to create my perfumes and what really stood out to me was yellow, sweet, grassy, salty, watery, and earthy. I used notes of mimosa, rhododendron, hay & white lotus to create a translucent yet grounded feel with notes from the earth like hay, straw and cloud.

This Dance elicited tenderness in me. It was about care giving and nurturance. About spirituality, playfulness and fundamentally about relationships, but not in an inaccessible romanticized way. In a raw, real way, warts and all. It reminded me of dragonflies. In their quest for perpetuity, they have found a way to court and mate in the air. With amazing elegance they complement each other’s movements. Within seconds the piece in my head was done. The building of this has taken me longer than anything else I have ever built.

This Dance elicited tenderness in me. It was about care giving and nurturance. About spirituality, playfulness and fundamentally about relationships, but not in an inaccessible romanticized way. In a raw, real way, warts and all. It reminded me of dragonflies. In their quest for perpetuity, they have found a way to court and mate in the air. With amazing elegance they complement each other’s movements. Within seconds the piece in my head was done. The building of this has taken me longer than anything else I have ever built.

If I had to choose one word to sum up the chain as a whole, it would be “Possibilities.” The photo was very evocative. The music, even more so. The video, again so, and the Sculpture was an amazing interpretation of the video. The painting side of the chain felt a lot quieter. It was kind of amazing that the painting, (on what I consider to be the quieter side of my tree) is a seascape, like the original photo and the sculpture – three generations removed from the photo and separated from any direct reference to it in the creative process – seems to bring to life all the possibilities hinted at in the photo! There were a number of creative intellects in this process that turned out to be on a very consistent, if not linear, wave length!