My current project will likely span a minimum of three years. I am planning to live for a year at a time in several different intentional communities, and while there, I will be painting the residents and members in an attempt to chronicle and celebrate their unconventional lifestyles. I am largely drawn to rural communities and people who farm organically with a focus on sustainable resources.
To begin my project, I relocated to Cannon County, Tennessee the first week of December, 2008. I will be selecting people for portraits in a fairly arbitrary manner and will be trying to display the broad spectrum of people that reside in and around the Short Mountain Sanctuary. So far, I've completed several portraits and have posted them here.
The idea for this project came to me while I was in the middle of a three-week visitor period at the Twin Oaks community in Louisa, Va. I was struck by the rugged individualism of the people living in that community and their never-ending quest for a functioning utopia. Many of the people that I met there had incredible stories to share that shaped their ultimate decision to live in an income-sharing, egalitarian community. In a similar manner, the people of Cannon County that have migrated to the Short Mountain Sanctuary charmed me with their peculiarities and peccadilloes.
So, I will be posting more portraits here as they are completed, and I will probably announce the venue for a show sometime in the future when I have about ten or twelve drawings finished. I encourage you to check back seasonally to watch the content of this page as it grows.
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Gary
graphite/pencil
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Krista
graphite/pencil
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