tornado
72 x 72”
oil on canvas
"This happened!"
[On April 2, 2024 a EF-2 tornado with winds up to 120 miles per hour struck Joyce Garner’s home. A tulip poplar over 100’ tall fell away from the house. No one was harmed, but thirteen mature trees were lost and the house required a new roof.]
lifeboat
84 x 60”
oil on canvas
"Lifeboat touches on immigration and liberty. Justice made it to the raft, but note her scales are broken. And there’s water in the raft.
When I struggle to sort out events, often music from long ago runs through my mind. For this painting it was the Beatles' 'yellow submarine.' So the lyrics are included."
the weather outside is frightful
60 x 96”
oil on canvas
"Of course there is beauty and bounty but also erratic weather including wildfires."
worried woodpecker
72 x 72”
oil on canvas
"This painting has my personal reactions to climate change. How are fish sensitive to climate changes? Birds? Trees? People?"
tulip poplar
80 x 195”
oil on canvas
"Tulip poplars are not only the largest hardwood but the state tree of Kentucky and Indiana and Tennessee. They are plentiful at my longtime home on Happy Hollow Road.
It interests me that the blossoms are 80’ up and serve as a rest stop for migrating monarch butterflies, Mexico to Canada. I first spotted the blossoms in our driveway in June decades ago—and fluttering monarchs in the treetops. Of course all was incorporated into my art beginning the 90s.
Hares and rabbits are still about the quick passage of time. There is loss and grief yet wholeness. I’m not sure grief ever really passes but flowers and music and nature ease it."
tulip poplar (detail)
dock
40 x 40”
oil on canvas
"The painting sat on the easel for a while since Covid, unfinished. This piece prompted questions that I think all the other five paintings explored."