Outside is where I have always been able to find my truest self.  It is the well I go to for healing, for joy, for inspiration, for love.  It is my church, and it is where I understand the elation of play.  It is where I renew and revive my creative energies.  It is where I recreate.

On an annual backpacking trip to the WA coast this past September (2025), the coastline shrouded in mist and drizzle, I again found myself in profound awe.  Mussels, clams, anemones, sea stars, barnacles—vibrant in dramatic tide pool universes.  Where ancient bird species dance among ephemeral lace-like bubbles on wet sand and between elegant ribbons of purple and green seaweeds.  And where there are so many of my favorite charcoal-colored stones with minimalist white line drawings to fall in love with.

As happens when I backpack, when I eat and sleep outdoors, where my only objective is to walk and listen, observe and discover, I returned to my house on an island transformed by renewed wonder.  This time, I came back with an old familiar word imprinted in my mind.  As origins and language will do, with a fresh perspective, one word morphed into two ideas.  It seems obvious to me now that the place where I find the most joy is also my creative nourishment—all in the same word: RE•CREATE.  To continue to create, I must get outside and play! Thus was the genesis of this new series of paintings. 

Enthralled by a muted color palette that matches that fall shoreline, and an unexpected technical chat with a colleague, I’ve rediscovered egg tempera.   Egg tempera is an archival fine art paint formula, widely used by artists in the ancient Greek, Egyptian, and Roman Empires.  I’ve long been environmentally and conceptually conflicted about painting with acrylics, for their plastics, and oils for the toxicity and lengthy dry times in the PNW.  Egg tempera feels velvety, and sensual, honest, and connected.  Painting with ground pigment and egg yolk has evoked in me a whole new delight and falling in love with paint.