Tracey Lane

Amber Waves of Grace I
acrylic, mixed media on wood
30 x 30 in.

My paintings are personal reflections that reveal what interests me about a place even if that place exists only in my mind. The Amber Waves of Grace paintings were completed during a recent residency at The Hambidge Center, which is located on 600 acres of pristine, protected land in northeastern Georgia where the Blue Ridge and Nantahala Mountain ranges meet. While the imagery of the paintings comes directly from the mountain valley landscape, they were inspired by a letter written by a young woman who had lost her husband in the terrorist attack on the Pentagon. In this letter, published in the October 11, 2001 International Herald Tribune, Amber Amundson had the courage and grace, despite her intense loss, to ask our nation’s leaders “not to take the path that leads to more widespread hatreds” and that if they did choose to act out of revenge that “they may not do so in the name of justice for my husband.” The paintings are for Amber and her late husband, Craig Scott Amundson, who believed that the role of the military was to prevent violence and war and “drove to his job at the Pentagon with a ‘visualize world peace’ bumper sticker.”

© Tracey Lane