Memory Paintings is a series pulled straight from my own life, the people and places of Whortonsville and the wider Pamlico County community in eastern North Carolina. Whortonsville is home base, since that's where I grew up, but the series reaches throughout Pamlico County and other corners of eastern NC, too, wherever the story leads.
Each painting tells a true story about a real person, place, or ritual from my childhood, most often with the people reimagined as animals in clothing, painted in a moody storybook folk art style. I paint the people I love the way I remember them, and I try to leave enough underneath the surface that the longer you look, the more you find.
These pieces aren't for sale right now. They live here and on my social media, where I share the stories behind each one. If you knew any of these folks, I hope you see them the way I do.
"On The Way Home With Winkie's Pears"
16x20 Oil on Canvas
Kathleen "Winkie" Slade ran the little wooden-floored grocery store in Whortonsville and played piano at church into her nineties. She never had children of her own, but she let us pick pears from her tree and pull them door to door in a red wagon to sell. In this painting, Winky is a mouse, a nod to the cheese from her store, with her dress ruffle painted to look like piano keys. I'm the doe pulling the wagon, and my sister Susan is the swan gathering up a fallen pear. It's twilight on the creek, with a boat drifting in the middle distance and a handful of hidden critters tucked into the scene for anyone who knew Winky and knew this place.
"Breakfast With Ma Bertha"
16x20 Oil on Canvas
Bertha was the oldest woman in our community, and we took turns staying with her overnight in her later years. She taught me to crochet, and no matter how early I woke up, she already had a huge breakfast spread waiting. We thought we were the ones caring for her, but she was the one taking care of us. Here Bertha is a grandmother hen, and a crocheted blanket spills from her hands into the breakfast table itself, raveling into bare yarn at the edge, a quiet nod to the maker who is no longer with us. The lamb represents all of us she fed and cared for over the years. There's a candle from those overnight vigils on the table, and the church sits out the window as dawn breaks. Fourteen hidden critters are tucked through the scene if you want to go looking.
"Peeling Apples With Meme"
11x14 Oil on Canvas
This one is my grandmother Audrey, who everyone called Meme, and who I'm named after. She raised her family in Silver Hill in Pamlico County before moving to New Bern in her later years, so she's not strictly a Whortonsville figure, but she belongs in this series just the same. She was full of quips and small superstitions that sat comfortably right alongside her faith, like peeling an apple in one unbroken strip for good luck and hanging the peels and dried wishbones around her kitchen window. Her cat Tinkerbell got pimento cheese from Eagle's as a treat, and you'll find wishbones worked into the wallpaper if you look. I painted this one loose and quick, and I left her face out on purpose, so the focus stays on her hands mid peel and the whole thing reads more like a memory than a portrait.
These paintings live on my Facebook and Instagram, where I share new work as it's finished. Please follow along at the links below.
