This is our first collaborative exhibition as husband and wife. The work represents an expansive field of wildflowers in late summer, the Dixon Woodland Gardens in bright fall, wintery trails at Crystal Bridges, early spring on an Oxford early morning, and lush June in Cashiers, NC. Carlyle’s paintings and Thad’s photographs examine intricacies and abstract patterns in the atmospheres they portray.

We titled the show Murmurations after discussing the graceful synchronicity of many birds moving as one. Thad loved the word and suggested that it conceptually structure our collaboration. As we developed paintings and photographs about places we experienced together, it was a sort of dance. I enjoyed responding to Thad’s colors and compositions, and Thad developed new techniques to introduce very painterly veils of color in his photographs.

There are many moments of unity echoing between our distinct voices in the shared atmospheres they represent. Then, in the back of the gallery, Thad’s Moon Paintings are a sort of brilliant solo. Thad developed the abstractions as décor for a key setting in one of his screenplays – a hotel on the moon – and describes the process of making them as “painting with light.”