Portfolio > Artistic Beginnings: Dashed Dreams

Dashed Dreams - A Record of Baby's Days is a series of paintings and drawings I completed upon finding a manila envelope after my parents deaths. The envelope simply labeled “Cynthia Damen ” was filled with snapshots of a sister I never knew. Cynthia died just two months before I was born. Her death left a pall of sorrow over the family for decades. These works inspired by these photographs are the foundation and the beginning of artistic issues I have mined since 1999. The following portfolios are divided by themes but they address in varied ways the concerns of children’s emotional development, grief, the presence of myth within the ordinary and the inexplicable persistence of the past within the present.

two children on a bed, wall writing and open door to distant scene
oil on prmed paper
58 x 50"
1997
pensive mother holding infant, light behind hair
oil on panel
30 x 22"
1999
mixed media scene father holding infant, summer, empty swing
mixed media on paper
58 x50"
1987
cottage in a distance, figure digging
charcoal on paper
42 x 30"
1997
drawing on toned paper, image within an image, photographic reference
charcoal on paper
42 x 30"
1997
drawing on toned paper, image within an image, photographic reference
charcoal on paper
42 x 30"
1997