The Small Paintings series started in response to the death of my long-time husband, Frank. During the last summer of his life with Lewy Body Disease, an especially terrifying form of dementia, he would say to me, “Don’t miss me too much.”
The paintings are small enough to hold in my hand while painting. It became a soothing daily habit. Making this series helped me to move on. I worked on them from late 2015 to 2020. They gradually grew to record my life after Frank and reflected my newly solo life.
Silk paintings. In the fall of 2020, I started as a volunteer reading tutor at a local elementary school. I had a fourth-grade student who was severely dyslexic and highly active. I knew he could learn from me if he could focus better. He told me he wanted to become a scientist and look at things through a microscope. He wanted to see “things that are invisible”. We made a plan that I would get him a microscope at the end of the year if he would work with me. It was going well until Covid hit and the schools closed that March. During the isolation era, I started painting on silk panels. I derive the patterns, textures, colors, and rhythms from microphotographic imagery of invisible organisms, cells, and diseases. I call this series “Things You Cannot See”. At the end of the school year, I bought a school microscope and delivered it to my former student’s home. He had inspired me in my artwork, and I wanted to do what I could to keep his dream alive. The series evolved to include other natural forms as the basis for designs, mostly branching trees. In my heart, this series is dedicated to Saleem.
These paintings are about 12” wide X 60” long. Each panel is individually designed, painted with permanent silk dyes, then rinsed with solutions to recondition the silk and stabilize the dyes. They can be worn or wall-hung and are hand-washable.
The paintings are small enough to hold in my hand while painting. It became a soothing daily habit. Making this series helped me to move on. I worked on them from late 2015 to 2020. They gradually grew to record my life after Frank and reflected my newly solo life.
Silk paintings. In the fall of 2020, I started as a volunteer reading tutor at a local elementary school. I had a fourth-grade student who was severely dyslexic and highly active. I knew he could learn from me if he could focus better. He told me he wanted to become a scientist and look at things through a microscope. He wanted to see “things that are invisible”. We made a plan that I would get him a microscope at the end of the year if he would work with me. It was going well until Covid hit and the schools closed that March. During the isolation era, I started painting on silk panels. I derive the patterns, textures, colors, and rhythms from microphotographic imagery of invisible organisms, cells, and diseases. I call this series “Things You Cannot See”. At the end of the school year, I bought a school microscope and delivered it to my former student’s home. He had inspired me in my artwork, and I wanted to do what I could to keep his dream alive. The series evolved to include other natural forms as the basis for designs, mostly branching trees. In my heart, this series is dedicated to Saleem.
These paintings are about 12” wide X 60” long. Each panel is individually designed, painted with permanent silk dyes, then rinsed with solutions to recondition the silk and stabilize the dyes. They can be worn or wall-hung and are hand-washable.