Artist's Statement

 When I am painting, I am often lost in a meditative state. I have little
 concept of time or what else is going on around me. I have the sense of
 being totally caught up in the quiet. Often I cannot foresee what the
 painting will look like. I may have an idea or an image in my mind of
 something I would like to do or accomplish with the painting, but the pointing
 always takes on a life of its own and surprises me. So in a sense, the painting
 is more than me.

 While in Iowa, I was a part of a painting group that went out on Saturday
 afternoons and painted landscapes. So there are a series of landscapes here
 from that time in my life. That was an important time for me as those folks
 were the ones who encouraged me to begin painting again. Then I did a
 sabbatical at Pacific School of Religion in 1993. The goal of that sabbatical
 was to put my two selves together. That is, in my first career I had been an
 art teacher. When I went to seminary, I decided I needed to do the
 "intellectual thing" there and so I did only one painting for one class. All the
 rest of my works were tests and papers. So I decided that I wanted to do
 theological and biblical study and respond to that by drawing and painting.
 Pacific School of Religion has a wonderful program on Religion and the Arts
 and so I took full advantage of that while on sabbatical. Prom that time
there ore three pieces: Presence. Limpid Reflections and The great Cloud of
 Witnesses. I also paint when I am on vacation, so there are scenes from
Nova Scotia, Maine, and West Virginia. For some reason other vacations did
not make it into the show. The non-representational painting and the leaf
prints were just for fun!

Thanks to my wonderful friends and family, who now own many of these
paintings, for lending them to me for this show and to Gordon Forbes for
putting three paintings into poetry. I hope that those of you who view this
show may find in the paintings something that speaks to your spirit.

Linda Carder

salty air,
  moistened earth!

*This picture was painted during Linda Carder’s sabbatical in Nova Scotia near the Bay of Fundy after she had recovered her love of watercolors. 

The Reverend Gordon M. Forbes

*The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides and some of the most dangerous on the planet.

The Reverend Gordon M. Forbes