A little background behind my new pattern and what it represents. Y’all know I can’t just paint pretty colors and call it a day… everything I create has its purpose.

I’ve been dabbling in textile designs over the past year- easing myself into this field. I am still figuring out how to take on textiles in my own way; pairing a rhythmic style of painting with the same depth and purpose I express in my art. I’ve enjoyed working on patterns. Creating for pattern is a new way to paint. I’m playing with color combos, scales and shapes. They’re on papers, scrap canvases and many walls in my house. Of all the patterns I’ve made so far, I have not yet loved one like I love “Memory”. When I painted this design, I was moved by the color combinations and sensed a concept in those colors. The mix was moving and striking but soft, too. I titled it “Memory”.

Time has a way of softening a memory; it pales the harshness. Time can make a memory more pleasant than the full reality that it was. Having a newborn is hard, exhausting and stressful at times, but the memory of your newborn baby is mostly nostalgic, soft and sweet.

“Memory” was painted before we knew what pivotal experiences were in store for us. I find myself hopeful that in time, the memory of spring of 2020 will be a moving and striking one, but soft at the same time. I hope to find myself looking back with nostalgia on the days when we changed gears and did more of the good stuff. We listened to a lot of music. We had margaritas on the porch. We got more rest. We went crabbing and fishing. We took many walks and bike rides, and I started to enjoy cooking again We came up with 150 nicknames for “Josephine”. My children would watch me paint, and I’d talk to them about how I make art. I hope I won’t clearly remember the vibrant tantrums, and quick tempers, the fits and the fights and the looming fear of the uncertainty. I have a feeling it will be memorialized as that spring when we got to know what really matters in our hearts, how we want to spend our time. It will be the spring we when we got to know our babies as the little people they were becoming. That spring that was a striking challenge, but as a memory it will be nostalgic, soft and sweet.

This pattern, “Memory”, is more than a mix of nice colors around your neck. It represents the forgiveness of time.

(currently “Memory” is available as a scarf and a zipper bag which can purchased here. It has plans though! Stay tuned)