This October I was granted a week as the artist in residency at the Loretto Motherhouse Art Studio in collaboration with the Kentucky Foundation for Women (KFW). They have teamed up to help artists by creating a beautiful time to get away and stay, relax, create and take in all the natural beauty on the campus. I have been on art retreats provided by KFW for the last ten years. This year’s full week was exactly what I needed to process things that often get stuffed down in my own world because of the pace of life.
For the last few years and all of the gun violence in the United States, I have been perplexed by the human race. I am interested as to why so many guns fall into the hands of people that should never have one in the first place. After the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas last year, I was on a shorter art retreat at this same place. It was just hard to express the grief I had been feeling. And to get it all out just seemed like a daunting task. But I did manage to create three pieces while I was there last year dedicated to the 21 lives lost.
This year I made six pieces dedicated to the theme of peace, after much research about all of the school shootings in 2023 alone. The word peace keeps coming into my heart as I think about the state of the world today. After researching peace and symbols… I came up with these six : an origami crane, koi, a white poppy, a swan, an olive branch — and what brings me peace — trees.
I was asked by the retreat director at Loretto what my heart feels when I am working. I responded that I don’t really think while I am creating all the layers. It is almost like breathing once I get into the rhythm of making and doing. In all honesty I think my heart may even skip a beat when I get done with a piece and call it “finished.” For this I am grateful because the grief flows in a creative, non-threatening way instead of becoming bitter. We can either be better or bitter after a tragedy. I am trying live with peace and betterment.
Please enjoy this video which compiles just a snippet of my work and the peaceful time that I experienced during my week at this sacred, hopeful and farm filled, naturally beautiful place. It is a little slice of heaven in Kentucky.
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Special thanks to Kentucky Foundation for Women and the Sisters of Loretto for giving me this opportunity!