The Journey

Oil on gallery wrapped canvas, 24” x 20”, Artist’s Collection

The Journey portrays my migration almost 40 years ago from a West Virginia farm to Anchorage. The window is from my family’s farmhouse, built in 1750. The left panes reflect a scene from the property overlooking West Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, and the right panes depict Alaska’s Denali—North America’s highest mountain—in the distance. The two graves represent the passing of my parents, and the subsequent loss of my childhood home. On a branch rests my Siamese cat, focused on the cuckoo that chirps the witching hour. The spirit guide is a white horse encouraged by a ghostly being to turn toward her destiny. This journey to Alaska allowed me to become who I was meant to be—undefined by Southern societal and parental expectations.