My "former life" as a cultural historian often informs my life as a painter.  That's particularly true in "Spirit Portraits," which imagines a mythical world of spirits, natural forces, elements of nature.  The sries draws from the tradition of the Gulla-Geechee people, and to a lesser degrees, the Native inhabitants of the Southeastern Coast.   Relegated to "worthless" places after the Civil War, they were largely left alone, free to develop a unique culture and to maintain traditional ways.  

While my last Eries on the Gullah people documented a lived reality, this series offers an "imagined reality" grown ut of  oral tradition.  The belle époque frames, abstracted backgrounds, and Gullah queen regalia signal a world beyond the everyday, a place of myth where time has no bearing.  I invite you to dwell for moments in this world.  See through ancient eyes.  "Listen closely," as one Gullah elder explained:   "If the world is still, you hear the ancestors speak."