NCCC Exhibit

Veil, oil on canvas, 30x40", 2006

Veil has been chosen for a year long exhibit in Raleigh. It is part of the Trappings series.

Frazier Park Mural Eye Candy

Frazier Park Mural, 4th Street Tunnel
C. Whitman, P. Rivers and students
Arts and Science Council Grant, 2006

Student David French works on the Frazier Park Mural, 2006

New Portrait

Kelsie, acrylic on canvas, 16 x 20"
Collection of D. A.

Sunrise over Jacobs' Ridge

View from my parents back porch......As Thanksgiving approaches, I'm feeling a little homesick. If you pan to the left of the frame of the photo, you'll see a large, old strip mine.

No Evils, oil and wax on paper, 22x30"

Another of the moth series.

Lover's Eye Ring

"Eye" Miniature, 1790, watercolor on ivory

Unknown British maker, Collection of the Mint Museum of Art

I think this idea is fabulous---carrying a ring with your lover's eye painted on it....not so much for the suggestion, but for the sentiment. According to the Mint, this "vogue was said to have been begun by Mrs. Fitzherbert, the paramour of the man who would one day become King George IV of England." This has always been one of my favorites at the Mint; so tiny it's easy to miss. I couldn't find it on my last visit, so it must be in storage.

Dream Roses, oil and wax on prepared paper
location unkown

Another of the dream series...people often ask me where the rose images come from...so, here's the story: I was in my early twenties and stopped by a friend's party one evening. While there I received some unwanted attention from a man who just happened to be in a wheelchair. The problem wasn't the wheelchair, it was the fact that I just wasn't interested---I was pining for someone else, and, party guy was a sloppy drunk. But, his disability made me treat him differently...rather than brush him off like I wound any other sloppy drunk, I was too nice. I was patient when he tried to trap me in corners; I was patient when he tried to chase me to my car in his wheelchair (kind of humorous now--but frustrating then). No, he never caught me, but I was relentlessly chased. Finally, I escaped. The next day at work, two dozen roses arrived, along with a clear expectation that we were dating. So, what I was reluctant to do the evening before, I was forced to do---sever any expectation on his part. But I was disturbed by my initial reaction...why hadn't I done this (and been ruthless) the evening before? You can do it, and not be heartless. Anyway, I took the roses to my studio and pinned them to the wall--to remind me to be straightforward, etc. As the roses withered, they seemed to draw toward each other and form their own relationships. I began to draw them and consider them personalities. Eventually, they came to represent people in my drawings, and become comments on my own relationships. Dream Roses is one of the first of these images.