A Connecting Thread
A show at Huntley Meadows Park June 1 - August 30, 2018

 

When I was little, my mother patiently endured the many little bits of paper, spilled paints, marks on walls, and accidents with scissors that resulted from my artistic endeavors. I made so many messes because I never wanted for any of the materials that let my imagination soar. I grew up in a home of makers. Our house was filled with art, from posters of famous works we'd seen, to meals grown and made from scratch, to the exceptionally crafted clothes my mother made for me to wear.

 

Right alongside the creating of art was a reverence for its presence in the natural world. The vacations of my childhood were spent among the trees and the waves. My parents took me camping for the first time when I was only a few months old. 

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So doing an art show at Huntley Meadows with my mom is something I kind of think we've been working towards all our lives. What has been most thrilling about the project, however, is all the surprising wonders we've discovered along the way. At the outset we gave ourselves the challenge that we would purchase nothing new for the show, limiting ourselves to materials we had on hand. We found we had an abundance to work with and our art is richer for it. One hundred year old pieces of crochet-work from my husband's ancestors found their way into my mother's pictures. I found a box of watercolor pencils that used to belong to her father and landed upon a previously unknown medium that I love. 

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We worked 4 hours away from each other, but would share pictures of our pieces and find that each had inspired the other. 

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I have a strong childhood memory of a walk through the wilderness during which my mother explained that the woods were like her cathedral. I have grown to think of them the same way. The thread that connects us as a mother and daughter runs through the natural world we know and love. This show has offered us an opportunity to share that love with you.

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- Jenna