"Garden of The Soul" - The Seed

I am thrilled to announce that I have been invited to present a solo exhibit of my work at the Hodson Gallery, Tatem Arts Center at Hood College in Frederick, MD.

The exhibit will open Monday, March 20, 2023 (appropriately the first day of Spring) and close on April 14, 2023. There will be an opening reception open to all on Saturday, April 1 - SAVE THE DATE!

Tatem Arts Center at Hood College.

(image courtesy of @hoodcollegegalleries)

The entire concept of the show has been inspired by my treasured possession (seen below), a small book entitled “Garden of the Soul”, that belonged to my great, great grandmother Elizabeth Kelly.

My exhibit, also called “Garden of the Soul”, will be a botanical tribute to the lost stories of one branch of my maternal family tree. I will be sharing these stories here, bi-weekly, leading up to the exhibit, and hope you will follow along.

Before I knew there was a thing called genealogy, I was curious about my family’s past. From a young age, I was acutely aware of wanting to know “where did I come from?”, “who do I look like?”, “where did I get the traits that added up to create me?”.

Even as a small child, I liked the sense of connection from hearing the phrase, “You inherited your artistic talent from Nana” (my beloved maternal grandmother). It conjured up images of a precious gift handed to me - something that made me special. But where did Nana “get it” I wondered?

In the quest to create “portraits” of my ancestors (not literal faces necessarily, but the details and stories that truly create a life), I have spent countless hours scouring census records, birth, marriage, and death records, newspapers, obscure genealogy research sites and more recently DNA, to build a picture of my past.

When I began painting my botanical watercolors in March 2020, I truly began to sense the intersection of my Art and family history research. The use of plant metaphors in genealogy (the family tree with its branches and leaves) is the obvious connection and my current work is inspired by, and a connection to, my family roots.

My upcoming solo exhibit (details below) at Hood College in Frederick, MD is a perfect example of this intersection. The show, titled “Garden of the Soul”, is a botanical “portrait” of my maternal family line back to our first known ancestor in Belfast, N.I.

One of the leaves along this branch of my tree is my great-aunt, Elizabeth Rose “Betty” L. (I am not using last names to protect the privacy of living relatives), who I discovered attended Hood College from 1932-33 at the age of 16. It was pure coincidence that my son, James, chose to attend Hood College. It was not until after he committed to this small, private college in western Maryland did we discover the family connection! What are the chances?! When the opportunity arose to exhibit this body of work at Hood, I knew it was an opportunity of a lifetime to share the culmination of years of study, artistic practice, and genealogical research.

I look forward to sharing my journey and more tales like this in the year leading up to my exhibit and I hope you will follow along! x Erin

Elizabeth Rose L. (my great-Aunt Betty)

b.1916 Philadelphia, PA d. 2006

Attended Hood College 1932-33 at 16 years old

James Emerson E. (my son)

b. 2002 Somers Point, NJ

Class of 2024 Hood College