I took a trip to Paris last spring. On the Left Bank my sister, Brooke pointed out a shop across the street with a window full of colorful fabrics bursting with abstract shapes. It was a lightening bolt moment of inspiration and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I decided I wanted to learn the language of abstraction to capture the intense feeling I felt in that moment. This past fall I took a challenging class that helped push me forward, Abstracting the Landscape with a teacher online in Scotland who challenged us with assignments like attaching charcoal taped to a long stick and drawing landscapes. The assignments pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me loosen up. It was a struggle to let go and freeing at the same time. I began deconstructing my Maine Landscape paintings. Truly breaking them down to their essence of shapes, colors and patterns. I’ve been exploring textures with visible brush strokes, adding layers of pattern with found materials. Applying paint on and printing from bubble wrap, the end of a pencil, a leaf. I have so many wonderful memories of my travels around Maine sketching. Like painting my Maine landscapes with vibrant color and dynamic contrasts, my new work is an attempt to express my memories using similar colors but with a completely deconstructed composition. More memories from my entire life started to come up. I started a new routine for 2024. I begin the day with a guided meditation and now I’ve included my sketchbook. I’ve been creating paintings from these sketches. Lately I’ve put together a compilation of all my favorite songs over the last 40 years of my life that helps put me in touch with the emotions, feelings I’m trying to represent. The music connects me to my rich experiences and telling my own story. Playlist runs the gamut from Fleetwood Mac to Jay Z. Turning 60 I was gobsmacked. I’ve never cared about age and didn’t see this coming. I lost people that I love so much. I became more aware of having a limited time left. It created a sense of inner turmoil. I got in this loop of replaying regrets. So hard on myself and made more challenging by a heightened awareness of the clock ticking. I’ve tried to grow and develop as a person, but found the challenging part of that looking back and having regrets. I could have handled that in a better way. Saying to myself you did the best with what you knew at the time. True, but not internalizing it. Now that I have been painting my memories as abstract art I feel like the regrets are dissipating as all these rich memories and feelings are surfacing. Trust the Process. It’s been my art, my creativity that is helping me to say what I’ve been searching to express. I'm embracing the idea of my heart breaking and being full and brimming over. Abstract art has given me an active way of creating my world and understanding and celebrating my life.