East Fall Blue Ridge Artist Statement • Catherine Twomey
It was one of those warmer fall days when you wake up and know the sun will be out all day; the sky a brilliant graduated tint of blue with a riot of rolling color below.
We packed the car with relatives, dogs and cameras and headed up to Skyline Drive above Charlottesville. I don’t know which was more memorable: the day or the friends, but quite possibly both. I knew I had to put what I’d seen and felt into oils.
It’s the layering of the mountains and colors that spoke to me. We stood on one of the overlooks to the east, taking in the folds and bumps of the earth. The Blue Ridge have a look all their own. The sweeping folds. The swaths of maples, birches and red oaks in their pre-winter dance. The intense blues softened by distance.
I’ve been all over, and there’s no place quite like it. It grounds you.
After a work life spent illustrating extremely complex processes and things, I have learned to translate details to their essence, their most representative and most basic. It’s one of the most difficult methods I’ve ever used to create. The temptation to overdo is a constant.
If every object is a droplet of color, and each color is a facet of jewelry, then I like to thing I’m a jewelry maker. An artisan of the earth’s beauty.
Catherine Twomey & Killian's Red
• TEDMED/TED Conference Participant
• First in Place American Horse Publishers
• ArtInPlace Mural Winner, Charlottesville, VA
• William H. Benton Museum exhibition