My memory is strong for growing up in water: pool, ocean, lake, puddle, sprinkler, rain, humidity. I grew up in Florida.
Water is the essence of life. It is our secondary environment. Water is seductive: it can be pleasurable one moment and dangerous the next.
I like the duality of water.
Water is ever changing.
Water is life.
I began the SWIMMERS series 36 years ago. It emerged as a body of work following my MFA graduation. I began searching for a way to visually present autobiographic, narrative content in my work. The iconic pool shape kept reappearing on my canvas as well as in my heart.
I painted pools for a couple of years—the architecture, shapes, essence, furniture, decks, landscapes around pools.
It took me years of painting to begin painting figures in the water. At first they were abstracted, then more recognizable.
It was with great courage that I began the narrative of presenting passages of importance in my life though the swimmer motif.
The series has continued- off and on — until today.
I return to it from time to time, to reflect and ponder on chapters of life that come from within and would resonate with others.
Water (pool) has become a metaphor for life, for change, for growth, for maturity.
I strive to portray the humanity of my experience visually. Sometimes I get close.
“The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.”
― Woodrow Wilson
The swimmer motif was born out of a child raised in Florida. We were always in water as I remember: pool, ocean, lake, pond, rain, puddles, humidity, hose.
Water is a metaphor for life— the trials and errors of living. Water is a symbol of ever changing conditions.
I began painting swimmers in the early 80’s. It was easy to connect to the child that delights in being in water. The series grew as I began portraying the adult figure in pool. Water became symbolic for heralding all the trials that my life held at the moment. The series continues to grow and expand as I age into more and more challenges that life can present. Many chapter of my life have been loving painted and recorded in the swimmer series: mothering, aging, loss, growth, maturity, and creativity. I will probably continue the series for quite some time to come.