Memory is a Funny Thing: Portraits

Summer at the Lake

Kerr Lake, 1970

Ben, Amy and Jane: fooling around on top of our VW Van. Later I was driving the kids on a dirt road in the rain and went into a ditch and the van rolled over.  That was before seatbelts but no one was hurt except for the car.

One of the delights and challenges in making these paintings come alive is the choice I make as an artist to paint objects that I had no ide

In the Studio

Durham NC 1969

Once my kids were in school I had 3 hours every morning to paint. That required discipline—until I fell into the sinkhole 
that is painting-time, and then 
there was never enough time.

In this series, I take the freedom to construct the space and choose the colors so that they add up to the atmosphere of the painting and the feelings of my memories. I hope that the ex

River

North Carolina  1978

I am in a boat on the Eno River and my boyfriend is breaking up with me.  I didn’t know it then, but this would be my last heartbreak, and I would stop smoking, too.

25 x 19    oil on linen

My Fourth Birthday Party

Queens, 1943

I loved my dress.  I was allowed to 
invite four kids, one of them being 
my brother Danny.  No balloons, no 
crepe paper, no party baskets, but 
how about that cake!  
I held the knife like a dagger.

Oil on Linen

15 x 20

Thursday Nights

Durham, 1964

Since we were moving to the South,  I learned how to play the banjo.  I loved Bluegrass.  The people I played with became well-known musicians —I couldn’t keep up, but I’d found my friends.

 Amy on the Beach

Kerr Lake, 1970

Amy and me digging up shells.  We went every week in the summers to swim and picnic. The lake was new with a muddy bottom and you could wade out a long way.  It wasn’t really swimming.  

24 x 20

Oil on linen