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Strasburg Studio Archives: Rediscovery in the Stacks
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N E W B E G I N N I N G S
APRIL SPOTLIGHT : "Shape of a Pocket"
48 x 24", oil on birch panel, 2023.
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Thank you for joining me on this monthly trip through the archives of my studio.
Shape of a Pocket, 48 x 24”, oil on birch panel, 2023.
With the arrival of spring comes a flurry of energy—windows flung open, the stale quiet of winter finally breaking as light and air rush back in. There’s a particular kind of magic that only spring can bring. It’s more than just a change of season; it’s a shift in the spirit. Possibility lingers in the air like the scent of blossoms. Trees stretch out tentative green fingers, new buds unfurling after months of hibernation. Grasses, in our typically semi-arid landscape, glow with a sudden and unexpected green, a color so vivid it startles the eye. It’s a reminder that even the driest seasons give way to growth. The transformation is powerful enough to lift even the heaviest hearts, striking a match of joy in even the most steadfast pessimist.
This month’s spotlight painting, Shape of a Pocket, which is now on view in the Spring Salon at Sullivan Goss, seems to belong to that spirit of renewal. Though not an older work, it’s one that, perhaps did not get the time it deserved in the spotlight. Created in 2023 for the solo exhibition SURFacing at Sullivan Goss, this piece was part of a broader dialogue—one that began with my 2021 show SEA CHANGE. Both exhibitions explored the local shoreline — the places where land meets sky and sea, where boundaries blur and freedom feels just within reach.
In these works, the horizon became both metaphor and invitation. At the time, we were all still processing the claustrophobia of Covid-era isolation, yearning for openness, for expanse, for breath. The ocean became my muse and mirror—offering reflection, rhythm, and the reminder that change, like the tide, is constant and inevitable.
Through it all—pandemic, political unrest, climate anxiety, personal highs and lows—there’s always been one reliable anchor: gratitude. I’m endlessly thankful for my health, for the work I’m privileged to create, for the love that surrounds me in countless forms. And always, always, for the land. It continues to speak to me, to inspire me, to center me. The muse doesn’t need to shout; often, it just quietly waits, like a tidepool at low tide, full of treasures if we only pause and look closely enough.
Shape of a Pocket, in many ways, captures that. It’s a small gesture, a held space, a gentle offering of beauty and hope—something we can all carry with us into this new season of light.
Images from SURFacing. 2023 exhibition at Sullivan Goss, Santa Barbarra.
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