tonight is the opening of the show, visual Language, which runs through Janaury, 2022. It has been a long time in the coming, this evening, that we will be able to gather, with masks, and celebrate theses ideas, visual and based in language, that are often very hard to communicate on their own.

For my part of the show, I have been painting to untranslatable words. Meaning, words that we find in other languages, that we don’t have in english. The set of words I have chosen to paint to, all revolve around nature; heading outdoors, alone Waldeinsamkeit (German)or with company Samar (سمر) (Arabic) , to hear the birds sing Gökotta (Swedish), to sit and think Kukelure (Norwegian), to feel the wind Rokrassgat (Icelandic), to bath ourselves in forests Shinrin–yoku  (森林浴) (Japanese), and notice how the sunlight moves through leaves Komorebi (木漏れ日) (Japanese).

Like nature, there is a fair amount of choas and imperfection to me work. The paintings range in size and shape. Some are oils, some acrylics, some three-dimensional watercolor birds.

Wabi-sabi (侘寂) (Japanese) which is one of the paintings, but also the feeling through the work, which is the acceptance of transience and imperfection. appreciating beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete” and the appreciation of both natural objects and the forces of nature.

It is with gratitude to the 801 Gallery and Jan Elftmann in particular, for this opportunity to share this forest of work. I am feeling a bit like a tree myself, after spending these last two years thinking and dreaming and painting this collection. From the seed of an idea, to a wall full of paintings, I have grown, I have swayed. I have felt the wind, and in my heart so many birds sing.