Playing in the Sand

Sunflowers and Gerber Daisy in a Mason Jar

Portrait Study of Les Misérables

Mason Jar Of flowers

Sensing the Storm

Giving Statement

In the early 1960’s an uncle who lived several states away had an affect on my understanding of art, and the human soul. He was a talented artist but after many years of heavy drug addiction, his artwork began to exhibit a convoluted desperation that only he understood. No one wanted his paintings but when I was in middle school, because I was already showing an interest in art, I ended up with one of his paintings when he died. It was a portrait of Jesus' face, and in-spite of having never met him, his story stayed with me. Now, I see each commission as an opportunity to look into anther human's soul and create something that would be a blessing. That is why beginning with my first mural that I painted in high school in my high school library I continue to donate energy towards painting murals in schools and working with troubled/addicted -teenagers, teaching them how to “do art” instead of drugs.

Through my work I have seen lives changed and drug addicts and cutters go on to go to college, get degrees in counseling and give back to the community.

Because all things are connected down here on earth as well as in heaven I also earned my Associate Divinity Degree, as well as served as a chaplain at Duke University hospital while earning my level one Chaplaincy degree.

The home I envision is one where teenagers come on Friday and Saturday night to play music, do art, and bond with grandparents and mentors, in the day hours small children come to see puppets and storytelling, as well as offering parenting classes and outreach to the community ....has yet come to fruition.

Caymen Islands: The Storm

I created this painting from a photo I took in the Grand Cayman Islands.  It was  the year 2008 and I had just completed my Associate Divinity Degree and a season of Chaplaincy at Duke Hospital. My husband wanted to go scuba diving with my son and I felt that it would be nice to join them for a little nine day rest. I was into whittling at that time and was sitting on my porch the day before we left for the Island whittling a walking stick, the blade slipped and cut my wrist. I received nine stitches. It should have been a warning to me, an omen of sorts. A slit wrist. I still have the scar.

We arrived in Belize and took an egg beater airplane over to the Island. I was not comfortable on that small plane, it did not help that one of the fifteen passengers on the plane was a man who talked loudly and had great knowledge about the way little planes operate and the likely chance we would all die.

 The Island was beautiful and the water was clear and an exotic green. There were pineapples and coconuts all ready for picking. It was just like the brochures depicted... except when when I walked around the corner to the street  behind the resort. It was then I discovered it was more like a set from a Western Movie, not a modern set, a set made in  the 50's.  The water front hotels were painted beautifully, but behind the façade the rest of the town consisted of  things propped up and in shambles.

We stayed in one of the best resorts on the island and decided not to complain about the fact that there was no hot water ,after we mentioned it one time and realized the maid did not speak English. Then the power kept cutting off, sometimes for hours. I watched the news and discovered it was not the approaching Typhoon that caused the power to go off, it was that the Island had not paid their part of the  power bill. Belize was mad at that little island. That was okay. The Island was stunning and charming. The little village behind the resort had some nice little vendors and we were amazed to discover there were no flies. None. You could eat outside and never see one. I asked the locals  why there were no flies and they said... ( okay, this is the truth- I kid you not) ....that the flies would be in on Thursday. I pondered that greatly in my heart, and also wondered if I missed something in the translation.

My husband and son gleefully charted their scuba course and took off on the boat early the first morning while the clouds gathered over the horizon and the news reports mentioned that hurricane/tropical storm Arthur was heading for shore. We, the maids and I, listened to the wind whistle and battened down the hatches. I nodded my head at them a lot and tried to communicate "Are we going to die?" They cheerfully nodded back. Yes, Yes, we are all going to die.


 We had experienced three days with flickering lights, cold showers, winds and threats of  rain, yet the guys managed to get in two days of Scuba before the resort took on the look of Gilligan's Island. Both days I wandered the island during the day and in the afternoon I stood on this dock, the one that is depicted in this painting, and watched the ominous evening clouds roll in, wondering if the guys would make it back to land. They came back glowing with joy. Apparently you can not tell there is a hurricane when you are under water. Keep that in mind the next time you are under water, you never know what is happening in the sky.

On Thursday, the heavy rain bands came through and during a moment of eerie calm we ambled back over to the little "one street town" to get a bite to eat. The flies were everywhere. Everywhere. I was amazed that they actually did come in on Thursday, - like- "It's Thursday, time to go onto town for the Blue Plate special!" My amazement at the uniqueness of each of God's creatures, and the knowledge of the natives concerning such things was profound.  I found out later that flies come in with the first rain, not on Thursdays.

                        * I felt like the flies deserved a paragraph all of their own.




The worst of Arthur lasted 24 hours, when he had finished ripping every coconut and banana off of the trees on the Grand Cayman Islands the flickering TV news report said that tropical storm Alma  was brewing in the emerald green waters off the shores of the island. In  Southern terms she was "over yonder close by" and chasing Arthur like a hussy; since I did not  know what dysfunctional relationship they had I decided not to hang around to meet her. I was concerned that in "Act Number Three"  Arthur and Alma would spawn a little demon storm named Alvin. At that time I did not have a smart phone so we walked in the rain to a little sketchy internet cafe and looked at our emails to contact our airlines and cut the trip short. As I typed all my personal information into a twenty year old dirty computer, on a keyboard with half the letters worn off, all my usual fears of internet hacking or someone stealing my credit card numbers were miraculously non existent.  The next morning I got back on the little egg beater plane in the pelting rain with high winds and low visibility and I was not afraid. I was heading home.


I will refrain from telling you the details of our flight home. Suffice it to know it was a rough plane trip and the lady beside me had to use the little bitty barf bag. We landed in Texas to take a connecting flight home. I came really close to kissing the Texas tarmac.  That tarmac was melting hot and nasty- but really -yeah, I was ready to bow down to the earth and French kiss it, I loved that Texas Tarmac and still think fondly of it.

I got my stitches removed the following week. 

So enjoy the painting. I will not go back for more photos.

Falls Lake Dam Fisherman

Pleinair Painting of a Man Fishing

Today I went out  to enjoy the fresh air and friends. It is very hot outside right now and everyone wants to leave after a few hours except me. I could stay all day. This man was kind enough to stand relatively still for us. I think we made him kind of nervous after he figured out that we were painting him. But he was a good sport about it.

 T. Angelique offers her talents in the community. Her first mural was painted on the library wall at her high school. She has completed five very large murals within the Public School System and as well as one for a local Christian School. In 2012 she worked with several local teens to design and paint a 20' x 60' outdoor community mural. Her purpose in doing this was to teach teens to give back to society and create something beautiful for a local Drug Rehabilitation Home. She has also obtained a Chaplaincy Degree at Duke University Hospital, an Associate of Divinity degree from Southeastern Seminary and nonprofit status for Hosanna Covenant Ministries -"Art for Transforming." 

After opening her own home to three wayward teens ( who were not her own) and successfully seeing them recover from drug addiction,cutting, and self destructive attitudes her wildest dream is for her nonprofit to open an art home for troubled teens where teens can learn to play the fiddle, paint, do theater, talk and laugh. Where old ladies sit on the porch, and teach teens to sew costumes, or knit and crochet, and grandpas teach how to wood work, carve and garden. To teach troubled teens to do art, instead of drugs- and to cook quiche not meth. In the early 1960’s an uncle who lived several states away had an effect on her understanding of art, and the human soul. He was a talented artist but after many years of heavy drug addiction, his artwork began to exhibit a convoluted desperation that only he understood. When he died she was given one of his paintings, a portrait of Jesus' face, and in-spite of having never met her uncle, his story, no matter how useless to anyone else, made an impact for others.

Quick Vignette of My Mother in law

One day last year I took my camera over to my Mother In Law's home to take some photos of her. She got her hat, and a book, and placed a beautiful vase of roses on the table beside her and posed. She grows the nicest  roses  so that was a great set up. Time passes and I have been wanting to get around to doing a painting of one of her poses but have not had time. So late one night I decided to just do a little head shot study and  paint a little 11 x 14 study of  her. When I got  to this point I liked it and decided not to change a thing. I gave it to her for Mothers Day and she loved it.I think sometime soon I will try to paint the whole scene.

Harkers Island Fish Trip

Saint Lucia

 

 A Catholic School wanted me to paint St Lucia for a festival they are having. They sent me the picture and I called back. "Do I have to paint the eyes in the bowl?" Yes, they said, " St Lucia was was an innocent girl killed for her faith and her eyes were poked out, so that was her "offering, or sacrifice." At first I was a little creeped out, but then I thought of all the places in the world- today- where Christians - young children- are being killed, maimed, & held in prisons for their faith. Although this young women lived many years ago in today's modern world there are other ways in which people sacrifice their life for the life of another, Police Officers, Moms and Dads, Firemen, the Military.  Scripture says " Greater love has no man than this- that he would lay down His life for His "friends." God intends for us  to love others before ourselves. We are called to love those who are different from us, to love those who do not believe what we believe, to be merciful and kind. God is love.

This is painted on 1/4 inch wood and cut out, the back is painted gold and I created a prop for it in the back so it could be set on a table with poinsettias around it  

I decided to show 2 photos because the one with the white back ground ( which is from where I sat the painting in my white shadow box ) does not show that it is a wood cut out. I included of the photo of the painting  on the easel so you could see that it is not on a canvas. 

Little bird

Charleston SC Cove

Harkers Island NC Light House Horses

This is my husbands favorite place in the world to fish. He works hard from sun up to sundown  7 days a week. He is lucky to get that rare day when the wind is not blowing and the waves are not too rough and everything lines up just right at work. In the past 35 years I generally would not go with him because he leaves at 4 in the morning and also the waves can whip up choppy quickly and make for a scarey ride.This particular day I decided to brave it and was so glad I did. The ocean was like glass and the horses were out getting a early morning breakfast.

Averette Home, Snowy Memories

Rainy Day on the Corner of Jackson & Grant: China Town, San Fransico

   This by far took the longest of any painting I have created.

 It was like a puzzle, every day I put it together piece by piece. 

I was afraid to do the Chinese lettering because I know how easy it 
Is to make a mistake and then who knows what you just wrote in Chinese? 
My fear is grounded on reality. 

Many years ago we had some Spanish speaking employees for our business  I had

 a little hand book  on learning Spanish and was trying

 to learn a phrase or two. They put up with me . I could say "¿Dónde está Phillippe ? 

( Where is Phillip?) and they 

would point me in the right direction. Then one morning I was on my way to work and

 I hit a cat that ran in front of my car, and I wanted to tell them. I thought I remembered 

what the word" dead" sounded like, and everybody knows cat is gato so I went into work

 and said " El gato es una mierda." Then I made little hand motions 

and charade signals to relay the story of the cat. They nodded solemnly. I figured they

were feeling pretty bad for that cat.
 Later that week I was with a group of friends one of whom could speak fluent Spanish, 

so I told him what I said to the
workers about the cat. He laughed until he cried. I was puzzled-"
"What?" I asked, "What?" He said between gasp of breath..
"Tammy, you were so close, but you said, "The cat is shit." 

 If you wanted to say the cat is dead you
should have said...El gato está muerto. 

HUM

 El gato está muerto - El gato es una mierda." ..

.. it sounded the same to me.
And so, it is true, close doesn't count
 ...........except in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Psalms 23 Trilogy

The women who commissioned this painting said she did not want art that came from a store or off a shelf. She wanted to be a part of the design and wanted an original painting in her living room by a real artist she knew-( me!)  She gave some serious thought to what she wanted to say and the feeling she wanted to convey .  When I finally met with her and she  told me she wanted to talk about a trilogy of  the Twenty Third Psalms I was really excited. These paintings are each 18 x 24 inches and I put the brown border on them to show how they would look when they were framed. One of the things she loves are poppies and so we did some research and found out that poppies do grow in the Holy Land so I put them at the foot of the mountain in the final painting of the sheep being rescued.  I read a book on shepherds and his care of sheep before I began and we discovered that there are  blue flowers that can make the sheep sick so I used little blue flowers in the painting where Jesus is looking for the lost sheep. We decided to go with a sky that was yellow and looked moody. It was early morning when  I delivered them and she was very happy with the results of all our collaboration. Her husband was sitting in the living room drinking his coffee  and in front of him was the blank wall  that would soon give him a peaceful scene to enjoy ... 

Quick Trick Book Stack

I still have a plethora of books hanging around. My kids love books and as they got older the books accumulated. I wanted to do a still life one afternoon so I decided to put them to use along with some pansy's from the yard. I stacked them all in my shadow box and adjusted the lighting, it took a few tries to get it all balanced and looking the way I wanted it to look and some where along the way I began to call it a "Quick Trick Book Stack."

Maine: Walking the Dogs on the Breakwater

Bella In Black and White

Commission Dog Portrait: Bella is a proud mischievous little Shih-zu who, had she been human would have been a great little runway model. She posed very prettily for her photo shoot and we had a hard time choosing the one to be painted because they all came out so nice. This is because Bella is still young enough to  look good all the time .

Floyd: The ECU Pirate Dog

Floyd was a special commission for  "Jennifer" a little girl who was in my 2 year old class way  back in the day.  Jennifer grew up to be a lovely young lady and Floyd was her pet. About the time Jennifer got pregnant with her first child  Floyd passed away. Her mother called me and asked me to paint a picture of Floyd so they could have it on the wall for the baby to see as he grew up.  They chose the Photograph of Floyd with this big OLE grin on his face enjoying the sunshine. Jennifer was my absolute favorite two year old way back then before I had any children of my own and it was a special treat to be a part of her life again.

After School Bible club

This week I decided to work on my blog by adding a few community things. I am glad I did, it has been nice to stroll through memory lane.  I am sure now that maybe I am ready to retire and let the world spin on with out me. 

Looking back at this bitter cold wet day  in 1996 I remember the thankfulness I felt towards the men who showed up to pour all that concrete that the Sunrock company delivered for free. That side walk these men  labored over was at least 350 feet long, they were wet and tired but also set up ten heavy concrete picnic tables that were donated by the area churches and they  did it all in good humor.

Sometimes we rescue.

Sometimes we need rescuing.

That was a day I was rescued.

I am forever grateful that I am not a man.

It was hard work

I am forever grateful for men.

The kids made cement walk way stones.

Nap Time For Ricco: Tricolored Light Beagle

Ricco is my brothers dog and he was delighted I choose to paint him one day when I had a rare break between commissions. My brother was really happy I wanted to take Ricco to some art shows and let him be a star.

Posing With His Dogs: Painting from an old black and white photograph.

This was a gift I did for my mom and it made her very happy today. Her father died when she was a teenager and she was the apple of his eye. She told me stories of how protective the two dogs Queen and Belle were when she was growing up. My mother is very stoic - up til today I rarely have seen her get emotional. She kept saying it was like he was in the room with her. Then I realized, all these years all she had was a few small black and white grainy, faded photos of him. Seeing him in color on a 18 x 24 inch canvas brought him back to her. I never realized how powerful it could be to put color into her world in this way. Over and over she called me the next dew months telling how he greeted her each morning and how much it changed her to have him in the room with her. She felt at home for the first time in a long time... in a home she had lived in for over 30 years.