Wade

/wād/

verb

gerund or present participle: wading

walk with effort through water or another liquid or viscous substance.

3 x 5.5ft

Acrylic on Birch Panel

When I started this painting I was attempting to emphasize my pain in being given someone else's rules and religion. I was disgusted at the facts that I was instructed to not trust myself, to deny my own nature and to follow before I lead.

Not only was this painting a challenge because I was working on an unfamiliar surface where my paint was immediately absorbed by the surface, but also because working on this painting forced me to have an eye to eye with the most precious version of myself.

I am so grateful for childhood. I'm so glad that in a world with so much to discover I didn't get too comfortable with staying close to home, to be a child is to have endless courage. I look back at this even tinier version of myself with so much amazement, and so much compassion. I really, really love baby Rae. She's adventurous, she's thinking, and she's vocal. She laid so much groundwork for me. Adult me.

My first advocate, mentor, and friend (c.1994)

48x60

Acrylic on Canvas

April 2023

This piece is about grief, deconstructing, and a commentary on how religion informs and impacts the ways that we grieve. I was born into two generations of religious leaders and evangelical Christianity was the core of my identity - the premise being that if you believe then you will live again forever. The focus on what is happening after death stifles the ability to grieve properly, it encourages you to pretend that you’re not sad, disappointed, or even angry - you must believe in something that you cannot see and have no evidence for.

Gathered around the Kitchen table the night before my grandmothers funeral I looked up and discovered that heaven is a place on earth, and is dished out in moments.

48x60

Acrylic on Canvas

A gift for my mother-in-law, Lisa.

48x48

Acrylic on Canvas

This piece was created months before i relocated from the mostly frigid Midwest to the promise of eternal sunshine in Phoenix, AZ. While I had still not even visited, It acted as a countdown to a life imagined. The hallmark features of the southwest were clearly Cacti - A sort of weird tree bush that thrives in hot climates. This novelty of my country soul turned out to be even better than I had imagined. “I want to live here.” And so I did. The painting sat untouched as I acclimated to my new home. Suddenly everything I had dreamed of began to shift. I was no longer a tourist, now I live here and all of the houses look like this.

I guess this is the valley.

48 x 48

Acrylic on Canvas

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This painting marked the second time that birds are the subject in my work. I have a suspicion that we might all be birds.

My mother frequently identified a Red Cardinal spending time in our yard must absolutely have been her late father paying us a visit, and to that I must conclude that we are all birds. Hummingbirds fly thousands of miles although they are quite small in size. Perhaps their amazing memory has brought these two back together? Is it possible that these birds have known each other before? However these uncaged birds came to be, I learned that love is sweet.

48 x 48

Acrylic on canvas

4400.00

Adjective: Grown or produced in one’s own garden

This piece is the most direct painting I’ve made in response to the effects of Covid-19, stay-at-home orders and social distancing. My survival tactics were very simple; stay at home, paint, dance, cry, eat ice cream, and repeat.

I have used droplets of water in a previous self portrait to symbolize growth, the droplets in this piece are tears but it turns out that there’s growth in those too. The layers and intersecting lines reveal that it is possible that more than one thing can be true at any point and if I look closely I see that the butterfly is a self-portrait.

36 x 48

Acrylic On Canvas

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Clown/Kloun/⬩noun

A Comic entertainer, especially one in a circus, wearing a traditional costume and exaggerated makeup

⬩Verb⬩

Behave in comical way

This painting began with a sketch featuring a yellow traffic signal meant to represent the warning signs that life gives us. I feel fortunate to live in a world where there are warnings. The irony of this piece was that during its inception and execution I was actively ignoring several warning signs and red lights, as only a clown might. This piece grew darker as I began to confront the flies swarming around my life. I had let myself become a piping hot pile of garbage. I was decomposing. It’s a good thing you can’t take the smile off of a clowns face.

18 x 24

Acrylic on Canvas

300.00

36 x 48

Acrylic on Canvas

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This piece is a recreation of one of my earlier works. When this painting was created it was not intended to be a self portrait - quickly I learned that if you use your own face for a reference you will have created a self-portrait. Much like the original, this portrait was birthed in a time of transition and is representative of the growth and shifting that I was experiencing at that time. The water droplets are symbols of the support, love and care that nourished me and allowed me to flourish. My garden will never run dry.

36 x 48

Acrylic on Canvas

3500.00

Midnight Snack is easily one of my most favorite pieces.

I stood in the alley of my Chicago apartment building as I headed for the dumpster, rotting pineapple in hand. That pineapple had sat on my counter for 1 week too long, and coincidentally it was unrelated to the ant infestation taking place in my nearby bathroom. Somehow everything felt related. If ants were not pouring out of the baseboard in my bathroom, and If I had not blamed the pineapple, then I would not be standing outside in the dead of winter looking up at the sky. That full moon reminded me that everything is related, everything is a circle.

36 x 48

acrylic on canvas

1100.00

24 x 48

mixed media

2300.00

24 x 48

Acrylic on canvas

SOLD

24 x 30

Acrylic on Canvas

Sold

11 x 14

commissioned

Not For Sale

11 x 14

Mixed Media on Canvas

Not For Sale