Emergency Working Artist Project Grant FY22

Exploring memories I have from growing up as a bird-watcher helps me to gain focus on where my fascination with birds came from, and helps to give my art a fresh perspective. Stylistically, the main goal and the big challenge in my painting right now is to make my art more impressionistic, and using images I have from these memories will help with pushing my art in that direction. I have spent the last few years improving my skill as a painter by making my work more photographic, and now I would like to use the technical accuracy that I have gained to better portray additional paintings based on memories from earlier in my life growing up as a bird-watcher. By producing two new works based on my early memories, and using them as part of a show at the Great Lakes Aquarium this fall, I will be able to broaden my audience and further my career as a local artist, which in turn may inspire others to have some of the same wonder and appreciation that I have for both birds and nature. My goal for this project is to complete two new paintings for the show at the Great Lakes Aquarium in September 2021, and based on my years of experience painting, I am confident in my ability to execute these paintings in the allotted time. My previous show at the Great Lakes Aquarium in 2014 featured ten paintings, most of which I completed in the year prior to the show, so I believe I can do the same with this project. I have already created a few paintings based on memories that I have from earlier in life growing up as a bird-watcher, and these paintings have been very well received by the public. A number of people have shared with me how touched they were by the sense of deep emotion and the dream-like quality these paintings conveyed. With an established history of completing these paintings and of receiving this positive feedback, I look forward to creating many more of these paintings.The main impetus for this project came about when I showed some of my paintings to a friend, and she became awe-struck by the ?Ovenbird Flight Song.? She was able to describe in detail the precise emotional reverence that inspired me to create the painting. I was thrilled to have someone see into the soul of a painting like that, and since this painting was inspired by an experience from much earlier in my life, it made me realize what an impact these types of paintings could have. On a personal level, I will know these works has been a success if they carry the emotional impact that I intended, and on a public level I would be very happy if some people relay to me that these paintings have somehow touched them deeply, in a similar way to the "Ovenbird Flight Song." A few sales wouldn't hurt either!