My latest work, “The Flora That Raised Me” is a self portrait with symbolic flora that has walked with me throughout my life in Appalachia. Growing up on a sheep farm in Southwest Virginia, I often picked bouquets of daisies and Queen Anne’s Lace with my mother. I took it upon myself to pick ephemeral bouquets of wild violets to gift my parents each spring, and there wasn’t a summer in the country without delicate branches of periwinkle chicory lining the side of the road.

As I grew older, I rekindled my relationship with Appalachia through foraging in its forests, and I came to discover my love for native species and hard-to-find fungi. Morels, often found under tulip poplar trees, lit a new fire in my belly. Unique plants like Jack-In-The-Pulpit guided me to a new love for my area.

Oil on panel.

36 x 48 inches.