Haystack Beach, watercolor, 9" x 7". Summer 2022 / Winter 2023. Granite boulders at the edge of the iconic sand beach at @haystack_school in Deer Isle, Maine. I sat here and sketched this scene last summer during Haystack's Open Studio Residency. Today I finally felt inspired to finish up the piece, a year and a half later. Things are still taking me more time - much more time, sometimes. My time at Haystack was a beautiful and complicated journey that I haven't been able to re-visit and process much yet.
This week would have been my grandmother's 97th birthday. It's hard to believe it's been almost 3 years since she died. Strange that my time at Haystack was 18 months ago. Although my work there was centered on her death, in truth it was about her lifelong love of this place, in all its wildness. Looking through my residency photos to find a reference to finish this painting, I see so much vibrancy, joy, and life. I am glad to know it.
My grandmother was a private, sensitive, and perceptive person, often a prickly person, and Deer Isle people were the ones she trusted to hold her in community, through life and into death. She and my grandfather are buried here, less than two miles from this beach. I am glad to know it.
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4 months ago