home paintings

The real world which is the unreal world which is the real world. In any event, after 6 p.m. and on weekends there is home.

Literally, home is an old frame house on the edge of 101 acres in the mountains. Symbolically, home is the nest, the womb, the cave within the mountain. It is that space in which to withdraw, to collapse and/or to rejuvenate, and to close off 'that world' of rat race, bust ass, and brick wall. It is that space in which to think and to feel and, at times, to create. Home Paintings is to be at home.

Ironically, this week, about 10 months after completion of the series, I join the growing numbers of the unemployed (16.1% in my county). For a while - before panic takes hold - I plan to test the theory of cabin fever. And perhaps, after what has seemed a very long dry spell, to paint. After all, encouragement - at which I both groaned and grinned inwardly - came from the employment office: oh, you're an artist, how wonderful.


Also on view is a book of poems in progress. Critical comments invited.

Special thanks to May Stevens for permission to incorporate her quote in 'Planting Onions.' Statistics in 'Can women's art help?' were published by the now defunct Tennessee Commission on the Status of Women.

Marlene M. Wills
May 16, 1982

 

 

showings:
Will The Real Gallery Please Stand up! Boone North Carolina May 21-27 1982
Hard To Find, Valle Crucis North Carolina October 19-November 1 1991
[double exhibition with ' home away from home' series]