I have fallen behind on sharing my good news! As I write, two brand new pieces hang in the August Group Show at Jones Gallery in the arts district in Kansas City, MO.

“Evil Eye” is from my 2019 trip to Costa Rica. It is another close-up abstraction from my somewhat extensive exploration of a huge root ball, weathered smooth and silvery and deposited by the Pacific Ocean on Cabo Beach (Cape Beach) of the Osa Peninsula.

I have gotten a lot of “mileage” out of that root ball! This is the second abstract image of it that has been accepted into a juried show, and like the first, I didn’t “see it” right away. I just thought something interesting was there, and after playing around for awhile with cropping and contrast, suddenly the “evil eye” in the wood popped.

You can read a blog post featuring the root ball and see it here, and see the other image from it, called “Scream,” here.

“Scissorhands” is local and very recent. Just a few weeks ago, I went for a day’s hike in the Tensas National Wildlife Refuge just a couple hours drive from home. This is one of the shots I came home with.

Since moving to Louisiana, I have developed a sort of love-hate relationship with palmetto–a plant that comprises a high percentage of the understory in much of Louisiana.

Why do I hate it, at least sort of? It is spikey and jagged and pointy. In my earliest forays into swampy Louisiana forests, I was certain I would trip over a vine and be impaled on a palmetto!

But those fans of spikey leaves also interact wonderfully with the sun, creating layers of shadow and light, edges and textures. So I have come to love it.

These images are both part of the collection I call #HoodedOnSquares. And… as I write this, I have just been accepted into two more national juried shows, two images in each show. Stay tuned!