Somerset Paper

Those white spaces you can still see are lovely Somerset paper.

It's a printmaking paper, suited to water and inks.

I am using watercolors.


I launched the Chaos series on Somerset in late fall of 2005, because at the time it was the only paper I had. I needed to paint something very personal about my experience of the storm and my altered perspective. Not only was my personal life uprooted, twisted and turned, but the wetlands I had walked, painted and advocated for, my source material, was in upheaval and devastated too. But I had to paint. It's hard for me not to do that. So I used what I had at hand: some Somerset, a brush, some pan colors, and some symbolic blossoms.

I began to explore. Fell back in love with the tooth of this paper ( It had wrapped my silks for the Ritz after all ). Found solace in the flow of the paint. I could no longer feel satisfied inside any previous lines and certainly not straight ones; images automatically appeared at the end of my brush in random places. Paint intuitively spilled onto the page. Sometimes adversity presents elegant solutions. I was hoping that would be the case here.

Hm, I thought, my reality is surreal. Well, that's what it is, so I am going with it. Me, my brush and the Somerset's softness and strength. So the Chaos Series was born.

Have you ever found the perfect thing when you thought you were just making do?

( Now go be naughty. I am right behind you there. It's Friday after all. )