Did you know that your browser is out of date?
To get the best possible experience using our website we recommend that you upgrade your browser to a newer version. The upgrade to the software below is free.
I’ve lived my whole life in Northwestern Washington. I originally grew up in the Skagit Valley. My family owned farmland not far from the Skagit River and the adjoining bay. As kids we’d walk the dikes and sloughs with fishing poles in hand. Sometimes we’d row ourselves out to the mouth of the river early in the morning to get the best seat in a duck blind before the sun rose in the distance. No matter how much planning we did for the day, we could never plan the weather but then that too was part of the adventure. Our Northwest weather creates some of the most incredible skies. Nothing compares to the smells the wind can pick up here. Somedays the wind blends the smells of freshly cut hay with those lofting off a low tide. The Northwest is a place where a fresh rain fall can remind you again of the wild roses that bloomed in Spring. I suppose that’s why I’m drawn to continue living here and why I’m passionate about painting it.
The Northwest is growing and with it comes the threat our rural farmlands and waterways disappearing. I hope we can preserve these open areas before they are just memories. These landscapes are what drew many of us to live here initially. So as changes and growth comes we must remember that we are all responsible in some way for how it will turn out.
So in doing this work I ask my viewers for one thing. Slow down, take a walk in your favorite place, note the gifts that the wind brought today, compare it to what it brought yesterday, and become one with the incredible place where you live. My work’s intentionsare from here—where I attempt to create that millisecond pause—that place where if you’re listening you can hear the distant sound of the neighbor’s old truck coming down the road and while anticipating its arrival you noticed how the sunset has painted itself behind it.
I bring you this work to share the land’s story. The narrative where time slows down. It's the Northwest I remember as a kid. The one that can still attainable if you look for it hard enough, and more importantly will remain here if we save it. It is the story of Northwest’s boathouses, estuaries and farmlands. And it is also my story.
