Q2 2026 Update
Hello and Welcome to August!
Exploring the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts
Pieces of the Quarter
My three newest pieces continue to be large scale - each is 32"x40".
I'm continuing to find inspiration in decaying stumps I encounter while hiking. However, the last one of a lichen-covered rock in a tundra community was created while I was at Rocky Mountain National Park.
“By the River”
Oil and Chalk Pastels on Matboard
32”x40”
Moss can hold up to twenty times its weight in water, making it an important natural reservoir to regulate moisture availability. In times of drought, it shrivels and waits, surviving over a decade in a desiccated state.
“The Slow Siege”
Oil and Chalk Pastels on Matboard
32”x40
Lichen produces acids powerful enough to dissolve stone, yet are so sensitive to air pollution that it can be used as an environmental early-warning system - their absence from the landscape is a reliable sign that something is wrong with the air.
“A Lichen’s Garden”
Oil and Chalk Pastels on Matboard
This piece is a mere square foot of tundra, found in the alpine community of Rocky Mountain National Park. Some of these plant "cushions" are over a century old, growing mere millimeters every year. This small patch may have been quietly persisting since before the park was even established in 1915.
One of the first things the artist residence coordinator told me was, "You don't have to create art while you are here. Just be inspired." It was a permission I didn't even realize I needed. I hiked 10 different days and over 60 miles while I was there in search of little worlds.
It was a discovery of truly magical beings.
Sketches and Studies
Sketches of mushrooms and a ponderosa pine needle bunch
These were quickly sketched with Beam Paints, watercolors made only from sustainably sourced and packaged materials. Their brilliance and glistening from the responsibly-sourced mica is hard to show in a photo.
An Artist I Loved
. "All the Flowers are for Me"
Experienced at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA
Agha's sculpture reflects her experiences and feelings growing up in Lahore, Pakistan. Medieval Persian and Turkish architecture, textiles, and miniature paintings inspired the precise, stylized floral forms that compose the sculpture of light and shadow. Women from orthodox families are often segregated in their homes in Pakistan and floral designs within the home provide an outlet for them to connect with nature. She describes this work as her effort to create a sense of how women can reclaim and safely open up private space to welcome others.
Quote of the Quarter
"Although we all want so badly to be spoken to, we are inflexible about the delivery... What could we gain if we changed our expectations? What if we realized that we are, quite often, being spoken to? What if we believed our fellow species—the plants, the animals, the fungi, the microbes, and even the planet herself—are possibly seeking something similar?"
Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian
