30″ x 40″ watercolor and ink on 156lb arches paper mounted on panel
Meet my husband. This is a portrait of him when he’s not “on,” not performing, not looking to please or impress. This is him at play. This is him lost in the fragments of some 90’s alternative piece. This is him “noodling” on a new acoustic bass guitar.
This piece was selected by juror Frederick Graff for inclusion in the South Carolina Watermedia Society’s 44th Annual National Exhibition, which opened at the Pickens County Art Museum in Pickens, SC in August 2021. The show opened on August 2 and ran through September 24, 2021. It went on to tour selected museums in SC in 2021 – 2022 as part of their traveling exhibition.
My husband, Chris, is a musician who will tell you that choral conducting is his primary instrument. But I know that guitar was his first—his native language. When the COVID lockdown started and all the choirs were unable to gather, he started buying more guitars.
We now have at least ten of them (that I know about). He never told me why he needed them, but they arrived in our quiet home and I realized that these beautiful guitars were his new creative outlet. Isolated from his choir, the man who was at ease on an elevated podium now sat on the floor alone with a new acoustic bass guitar. He could no longer stand in front of a group of singers, but he needed to create. This painting, the first piece in my Portraits Project, celebrates the diverse ways that we use music to connect and inspire.
