I Refuse To Swallow
What Has Been Brought From the Garden?
"What Has Been Brought From the Garden" is my latest collection of artwork. This collection of paintings is inspired by my painting and poem, "My Rage is Like a Flower Garden", that I wrote in the heat of the locked-down summer of 2020.
The focus of this collection was to explore the theme of feminine rage, creating work that was floral and feminine in color palette, but rage-filled in expression and intensity. This collection consists of large, attention-grabbing paintings that cannot be ignored because of their size.
In reflecting on my 2020 painting and poem, I wondered, "if my rage is like a flower garden, what have I harvested from it?" The paintings and accompanying writings are the answer to that question.
“What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence?” - Audra Lorde
I used to love watching scary movies as a kid, but now, as an adult, reality is terrifying enough. Each day another mass shooting, each day more children being murdered, horror after horror bleeding over and into the next, so many that I have to ask, “Which one was that again?” while walking into work on a Tuesday morning. By Thursday I am fighting against becoming desensitized to the stories, but I wonder how many more stories like this it will take before I break and that’s why I can’t be trusted with a gun. It’s Friday and I pull into the grocery store parking lot and see multiple police cars and my body fills with fear like gas in a can only to realize that someone has had a stroke, so I go in and buy the eggs. Last Wednesday I was sent to the waiting room at the dentist to wait for my appointment and survey the room for the easiest place to hide before choosing my seat. Every day I walk my daughter into her school I silently worry about the windows that are in every classroom.
And though I am tired by the time I go to bed, I can’t go to sleep because I am just so fucking angry.
If you want to stay up to date on the progress of this collection and be part of the private viewing when it happens, you can join the Collectors Club here!