Blog

I left Richmond Virginia after living there for over 35 years in 2024. I had graduated college, been married, been divorced, had two children and lived in many houses. In my divorce, I lost the equity of my house, moved into an apartment and had to start over. In 2014 I bought a house on my own. While my youngest daughter was living with me part time, for the first time in my life all decisions about what to do with a house were mine and mine alone. It was refreshing. This house is where I found my self again. I made the front yard a garden, the back yard had a greenhouse, I fostered multiple dogs and painted the walls whatever color I wanted.

In 2024, I started over. I moved to Roanoke, Virginia with my fiance. I held on to the things that I knew that I loved to do (like building another greenhouse), and started work on making a house that was both of ours.

Before I left, though, I painted these pictures. Unlike some of my paintings, these didn’t use photos as reference and they were painted in gouache on paper. I found all of the views that I cherished and knew that I would miss. There was the warm nook with the radiator near the window and the built-in cedar chest that I would hardly ever use. And then there was the desk that I spent countless hours at my job, working from home even before Covid. My newly remodled kitchen that I would only get to spend a year with before moving needed to be painted as did my stairway that would sometimes have the exact right angle to see the moon through the window.