This project is an exploration of the way mental images render and fade within my memory. My paintings are of spaces, moments, ideas, and objects that exist within my recollection of a camping trip on the Cutler Coast in northern Maine during the fall of 2023. These paintings are displayed with an array of driftwood that I collected in Maine that same fall. Themes of weathered wood and campfires are both metaphors for memory in this series because of their presence in the experiences I am referencing, and the connections I draw between what I see in their nature and the nature of memories.

The burning campfires in my paintings are a symbol for a moment as it plays out in real time. Campfires are human made, bright, and temporary, just as a lived experience is. The way the fire illuminates parts of the landscape, while other aspects remain in darkness, is similar to how my memories have a clear center from which my perceptions fade.

Driftwood and dead weathered trees can be metaphors for the way something alive, like a moment in space and time, ‘dies’ when the moment has passed. The form of this experience, like a tree, does not disappear, but rather lives on as its own subject, prone to the wind, rain and sun. The wood, like memory, warps, smooths, and sometimes takes on a life of its own, as it is exposed to time and the constant barrage of the elements.

I began collecting natural objects to create sculptures for my thesis in the fall of 2023 and was quickly drawn to driftwood as a material. The beautiful intricacies that come from the natural growth of a tree, followed by the slow wear of the ocean, leads to incredible ‘sculptures’ crafted by the cycle of life and time. I realized that I was drawn to driftwood because of this quality and did not want to alter the pieces I had collected in any significant way. When reflecting on my thesis during a shared meditation along the Cutler Coast, I had a strong urge to continue my exploration through painting. I wanted to paint that exact moment, but since I had no means of doing it there at the time, recreating the scene from my memory was the closest I could come to capturing the experience. Once I began to paint the first memory, others from that evening with the same vivid quality came rushing back to me. Each of the scenes depicted in this series is a moment from the same camping trip that I found significant and profoundly beautiful.

My goal is to communicate these memories through a smooth, suggestive style, because the small details of the space were quickly lost after leaving the campground. What stayed with me were loose images and colors I associate with specific experiences from the trip. Bringing these memories to life on canvas, with no reference images, made me more aware of what aspects of my experience stuck with me, and what has been forgotten.

The driftwood in my exhibition is a physical manifestation of time, and the transformative power it holds. My thesis began with driftwood and its presence in the studio has had a significant impact on the artistic choices I have made in my paintings. I feel that these natural sculptures have acquired their beautiful forms from their deterioration. By collecting a piece of driftwood along its journey towards complete decay, I feel I have captured a moment of its life that is impermanent and special. For me, these paintings have been an attempt to capture a few fond experiences in my life before they fade beyond recollection.