Finished a new watercolor today, or at least I'm saying it's finished for now:

This work, along with three others, will be displayed at Gallery M Squared in the Heights later this summer at "Paper Cuts II," a two part exhibit featuring small to medium size works on paper. I will be showing two different works at each exhibit. More information below. Hope to see you there!

"Paper Cuts II"
Gallery M Squared
339 W. 19th St.
Houston, TX 77008

First Exhibit: July 10th - August 3rd, 2014
Opening Reception: Thursday, July 10th, 7-9pm

Second Exhibit: August 7th - August 31st
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 7th, 7-9pm

I've been thinking of shadows lately. Some recently observed shadows around the house:

I came across a book of Sylvia Plimack Mangold's paintings two summers ago, and her floor paintings documenting simple patterns of shadow and light keep coming to mind these days:

Some weeks back, I saw a beautiful group of watercolors by John Singer Sargent at the MFAH, but this one in particular struck me:

Earlier this month, I kayaked through Armand Bayou with a friend and visited another in Waco where I walked along the wooded edge of the Brazos River--two places where light and shadow had such a physical presence for me. These words came to mind after returning home:


She came to hear an artist speak,

          but God spoke.

He spoke through a blind woman who led her through the spotted shadows along the river’s edge--

          the “places of rest within life.”



She sat beneath a shadow just two days prior

          on the surface of a southern bayou,

and the peace filled her like the water in the palette dipped at the boat’s side

          as she traced edges of trunks and leaves.



The leaves whose spaced placements created dazzling dancing patterns along the kitchen wall

          when she woke up the day before,

and whose remains lie scattered today amid the discarded flower petals of a spring wind

          into arrangements calculated carefully not by she.


(Written May 6, 2014)