Painting as I see it.
An abstract painting may be difficult for others to get into, but is has been necessary for me to deal with the shit from Sept. ’24 to the present. Hurricane Helene Helicopters is about the chaos of the flooding and high winds. We can hear the helicopters which were bringing aid. The sound echoes off the mountains even when they weren’t visible. The boxes are a recurring symbol in my work. They are prayers.
Our friends Karen and Larry brought and stacked firewood for us when we could not. This is a Godsend.
I’ve struggled to express the giant mess that Hurricane Helene caused.
I love color. A pile of firewood has a lot of color in it. Also a lot of light and dark area. This is a painting, not a pile of firewood.
Does this look like a flower to you? It’s supposed to be a portrait of his turtle, but he saw it as a flower. That undermined my confidence, mightily.
We live an hour west of Asheville, NC. We had no power for 8 days, roads washed out, but nothing like Asheville did. Despite the conspiracy theorists, helicopters were bringing in supplies and looking for survivors as soon as they could. FEMA and National Guard. In the mountains I hear them long before I see them.
I have tried to put in some of the chaos of this disaster. Here are five iterations of this painting.
A friend brought us plenty of firewood to get through the winter while Gregg was awaiting hip replacement surgery. An unexpected gesture, a godsend.
Even being in the middle of it, the destruction is hard to believe. Gregg and I went for eight days without power, but we had food, water, and many godsends. Brandon Mitchell from Virginia and his buddy brought a truckload of supplies and a starlink. Brandon wandered into my studio, and really looked. Most people are off put. He liked this one, and we made a deal. THANKS to all of the volunteers helping us get through this.
Summer in WNC.
I made this in 2020. It’s on it’s way to it’s new home in New Hampshire. Thanks, Jill and Chip
