At 2,000 feet above the earth, as if dangling from a thread, all my attention is on the landscape below. Fears are not forgotten but set aside as the small aircraft dips its wing so that I’m better able to photograph the sights below.
The ‘fear of flying’ slapped me in the face when my husband became a pilot. I needed to learn how to manage it. Once we are in the air, although my fear is ever present, the voices in my head quiet and the landscape below provides abundant alternatives that capture my attention and require me to get down to work with my camera.
This body of work is derived from fear, love, and passion, all of which are enduring emotions in my life; fear of flying, love for my husband, and passion for making art. As if by destiny, I would need to confront my fear and deal with it. Nelson Mandela said, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
For me, art is about life and the processing of experiences and interconnectedness with others and our environment. I am constantly drawing inspiration from my daily interactions with the people in my life, the preponderance of media, and my natural surroundings. Painting is an endlessly fascinating and continually developing process of discovery, intuition, and improvisation. At first, the idea of coalescing my passion with my fear seemed an odd mix but, coming to the canvas from a new angle (literally bird’s eye view) has magnified the breadth of the work. And so, my fascination with making art continues….
