LARRY FAVORITE states there have been times in my life when I have been excit­ed to strike out in new direc­tions, to devel­op new rela­tion­ships, and to face new chal­lenges. But we are liv­ing in com­pli­cat­ed times. My spir­it – everyone’s spir­it – needs to be awak­ened (or re-awak­ened) to what is beau­ti­ful, what is ever­last­ing, and what brings com­fort. Nature awak­ens my spir­it. In par­tic­u­lar, trees and the liv­ing crea­tures of the for­est awak­en my spir­it; they soothe and com­fort me.

In cre­at­ing work for this show, I found myself drawn to famil­iar pat­terns and motifs: a wolf bay­ing at the moon, a hum­ming­bird hov­er­ing over a flower, a deer poised against the night sky. These images remind me that there are things on earth that are con­stant, things that will out­live me and that will sur­vive these dif­fi­cult times. I hope my work (re-)awakens your spir­it and com­forts you as well.

SUSAN HOPE relates the state­ment ‘trau­ma trans­forms’ stuck in my head as I real­ized that the last few years, cul­mi­nat­ing in this event of 2020, have been impact­ed by much trau­ma. This is the poi­son or the trea­sure. Amaz­ing isn’t it? The water and the wind move as they will, the world turns, our hearts beat and the sun ris­es. As our spir­its awak­en to those things that are tru­ly impor­tant it becomes clear, we have much to appre­ci­ate.

All the bro­ken chips of glass melt into a beau­ti­ful designs in the (trau­ma) fire of the kiln. It is my hope that as we look ahead with clar­i­ty and pas­sion, to the poten­tial hard­ship births, we will allow the trans­for­ma­tive work with­in our­selves to bring forth trea­sure.

“Don’t wor­ry, be hap­py… Every lit­tle thing’s gonna be alright!”  And quot­ing John Lennon, “You may say I’m a dream­er, but I’m not the only one.”

JUDE LOBE has been iso­lat­ing in their moun­tain retreat in Mag­gie Val­ley since March. She said this show, SPIRIT AWAKENED, became very rel­e­vant this year with the pan­dem­ic bring­ing us all inside and sep­a­rat­ed from friends and fam­i­ly. In these days of such unset­tling news and events, I feel grat­i­fy­ing­ly dis­con­nect­ed from all the tur­bu­lence.  The moun­tains have brought me seren­i­ty and grate­ful­ness for the qui­et and beau­ty that nature bestows on us. On day hikes I find places to sit alone and expe­ri­ence all the love­li­ness around me. With­in awhile I feel a calm­ness wash over me. 

I often write haiku poems that end up writ­ten on a blank can­vas before I begin a paint­ing or become part of the paint­ing. Here’s a haiku I’ve writ­ten when visu­al­iz­ing the paint­ing, Find­ing Calm.

Sit alone qui­et,
Sens­es now awak­en­ing,
Calm wash­es over.