A Community Collaboration

aI am excited to be part of Second Harvest's Thriftaversary! One year ago, they opened their doors to become a clean, beautiful and high-quality thrift store. I love to shop for second-hand for many reasons, but I am actually pretty picky about where I spend my precious time. I love shopping at Second Harvest. I believe in their mission, I find lots of great stuff there and it is neat and organized.

So here is the collaboration. They delivered some less than glamorous furniture pieces. I got to refinish them any way I wanted. My partner in this adventure was, local art hero, Nanci Goldberg, FCASD art teacher and owner of Ketchup City Creative. The refinished furniture (pictured), will be part of the silent auction at Second Harvest. The auction will be open from March 14 through March 19th. Money raised by the auction will benefit Ketchup City Creative.

The dresser was inspired by my Imagined Woods Series. I began painting the series during quarantine at the beginning of the pandemic. Things were stressful and everyone was home. I wanted to paint, but I just could not sit, concentrate and plan a painting the way I preferred. It was painted now or loose the opportunity.

This urgency forced me to work quickly, so I fell back on a favorite theme – forests and trees. I started with an atmospheric background by dropping color into the sky. I dragged my brush through the paint while it was still wet, to suggest distant trees. After it dried, I added a second layer using a watered down version of the color I would use for the tree trunks in the foreground. Finally, I painted the foreground when the previous layer dried.

I experimented with colors, shapes and sizes. I played with the season and weather conditions. I let my creativity take the reigns, and I love the results. Some of the paintings are dark and foreboding, others are light and hopefully. All of them hint at a distant light – the hope for the future.

I'll have some of my paintings from the series hanging in the store during the week of celebration. You can see the full Imagined Woods Series here.   

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