Full Sun: American Women Artists Illuminate the Haggin is the exhibition title of the 2018 American Women Artists Master and Signature museum exhibition, and Womb of Life has been selected as a part of this exhibit.

For this exhibition, members of American Women Artists (AWA) were asked to create artwork that was inspired by (or reflects)  a selection of 13 paintings from the Haggin Museum’s 19^th – 20th-century art including works by William Merritt Chase, Albert Bierstadt, Rosa Bonheur, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and other notable artists. AWA artists have taken their inspiration from the work of art, the artist’s greater body of work, or the theme of the painting. This juried exhibition will include nearly 100 pieces of artwork that ranges from paintings to sculptures. The exhibition opens August 2, 2018 and will continue through September 16, 2018. The Haggin Museum is located in Stockton, CA. An opening reception will be held on August 2, from 7-9 PM.

I submitted,Womb of Life, in response to The Juniata River painting by George Inness. The Inness painting interprets a landscape setting in Harrisburg, PA – an area very close to my birthplace. Effortlessly, I slip into memories of similar heart-warming landscapes while gazing upon it.

The Juniata River, representing man in harmony with nature mirrors the essence of my work.  When painting it, Inness had recently returned from a study trip to Europe, after which his attentions shifted from expressing objective forms to an intentional aim for spiritual expression through his work. He grew preoccupied with the inner world – as have I, throughout my development as an artist and writer.

Womb of Life, with three trees, not unlike those in The Juniata River, represents the trinity (mirrored in the limited edition number of 111). Trinity reaches broader than a Christian context. Symbolically, it includes the essences of beginning, middle, end; father, mother, child; and birth, life and death; etc. The spiritual essence of Womb of Life, as echoed in the Companion Poetry, is the suggestion that absolutely every experience in our lives is simply an experience, as we are held within the womb of life – being nourished, protected, and grown as we await a new birth. It invites us to consider a spirit of gratitude rather than resistance toward all experiences in our lives. The trees reflect natures’ pure acceptance in living this truth.