3rd
I finished my MFA at the University of Oregon in Eugene in 1997, and moved to Savannah, Georgia where I had received a full time position as a professor of Painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Savannah is charming in many ways (if you count rampant religious hypocrisy, shameless rasicm, alcoholism as a sport, pushing the bottom lower in public education standards, and strip malls), with beautiful architecture and a rich history.
I missed Oregon. I missed the microbrewers, the coffee roasters, the mountains, the cyclists, the nudists, the anarchists, the rain, and the light. Most of all, I missed the light. The Pacific Northwest has a singular quality to its light. If you stare through it long enough, objects’ edges seem to dance and dissolve in that light. It’s different from mist or fog, and it’s not drugs either. It’s its own, beautiful thing. I am always invoking that light, drawing it through memory to my field of vision, and hoping in painting to gaze upon it.
