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Working Memory

Working Memory is a body of work in progress
that contends with the ever so gradual loss of my
mother as a result of Alzheimer’s disease. It is about
a boy paying homage to his mother, remembering
the gifts that she instilled within him, a deep love of
nature and a purposeful connection to place. These
are mixed-media works on paper, made with acrylic,
pastel, watercolor...but of special significance each
contains actual bits of organic material collected
from home, such as pressed flowers, leaves, and soil.

Lucy
Working Memory,Soul Recording
Working Memory,Covenant Recording
Working Memory,Sibling Hymn to Her
Working Memory,Placeparted
Working Memory,Revival Recording
Working Memory,Place Imparted,Soil
Working Memory,Hymn Recording
Working Memory,Hymn Recording II
Working Memory,Resurrection Fern
Working Memory,Place Departed
Working Memory,Place Imparted,Sky
Working Memory,Creekside Recording

I am a Nashville artist and arts educator with roots in Tennessee, Mississippi, New Mexico, and Kentucky. I make landscape inspired mixed-media paintings on paper, canvas, and wood. My work is a combination of acrylic, pastel, graphite, watercolor, and collage. At times I also take delight in applying bits of organic material onto the paintings, such as pressed flowers, leaves, and soil. I think of each painting as a garden, or an area of sky, filled with fragments of clouds and flowers, grasses and wood.

 

My art is communion with landscape. My imagery, which stems from observation and improvisation, is born from dreaming upon the horizon, drifting towards sky and descending into soil. It is a dialogue between abstraction and representation, cause and effect, growth and decay. More invocation than description my work is a contemplation of forces which shape, veil, reveal, and record natural form.

 

For greater insight into my work please take a moment to read this lovely article by Jane R. Snyder in the December 2015 issue of the Nashville Arts Magazine

http://nashvillearts.com/2015/12/03/john-toomey-lost-found-memories-mother/

 

My work is represented by the beautiful Ruth Baggett Gallery in Paducah Kentucky. 

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