Artist Statement: ARTIST STATEMENT Transition contains ten key writings that presented themselves, usually shouted into voice text, as I drove back and forth while providing hospice care for my mom. Suddenly inspired while out and about, blurps of words often pop into my head capturing the essence of the idea, the mood, or the scenery that caught my imagination helping the inspiration stay with me. Even though visual art should stand on its own allowing the viewer to form their own opinions and amusements, if I feel a poetic snippet is integral, I enjoy hand writing the words on the back of the artwork where only a few special viewers will see. Then there are the times where in great joy or stress the words and their emotions demand to stand on their own to be seen and acknowledged as in the collection for Transition. **“Through the Eyes of my Father” is a return to my roots. For years I created elegant wildlife artworks in ink and custom scrimshaw, etching antler and horn for gunsmiths and knifemakers. Known now for more whimsical art, I am celebrating nature, too. Compiling concepts from travel and adventures into vibrant detailed paintings, I strive for a look that could leap off the canvas with feathers or petals that seem to flutter in the wind. This particular image celebrates the many wildlife excursions wielding a camera along side my father, a wildlife photographer with a particular interest in eagles. The ultimate goal of capturing moments in wildlife connects the beauty and drama of outdoors in my Wildling Series with mythic inspiration from my Gael, Southern-American ancestry in upcoming series, “From Bogs to Bayous.” ***Who knew that in a stroke of whimsy would make my art alter ego would be a bald male marionette? The Unstrung Marionette appeared on my canvas one summer insisting that he wanted to be painted foot loose and fancy free, no strings attached. In a case of "be careful what you ask for" we now follow his adventures as he tries to keep it all together. In paintings like “I Got This” we see him, chest held high with leg slung over his shoulder, leaving the colorful swirl of chaos behind, and we cheer for him. With the exception of one finger, a shoe, and his hat, he’s almost “got this!” Even though I did not understand at first why he needed to be painted, in oil at that, the message came through quite clearly in his name. The initials for Marion Etoile (whose last name means star in French) are M.E. The popularity of this series shows that many of us can appreciate and find the humor in how even our best efforts to keep it all together sometimes goes awry.