The Way Home

"There's a lot of beauty in the parts of life we normally pass through without thinking they're important." -Kristi Marsh-Watson

We spend so much of our lives looking ahead, planning and plotting what's next, and setting our eyes upon milestones. We reach our goals and arrive at our destinations, or maybe we find ourselves redirected and set on toward new ones. We're always moving forward. But how often are we present in, and really recognize, the process of doing so—the transition from past to Future?

Kristi Marsh-Watson's The Way Home focuses on the action of transitions and what surrounds us during those times. Drawn to landscapes one moves through rather than lands at, Marsh-Watson incorporates roads, rivers, horizons, and views from traveling in the car into her work. She appreciates places that are often treated as background to our focus on getting somewhere else. The show's title itself may "sound like a destination," she says, "but [she's] actually much more interested in the way, the experience of getting there," wherever "there" might be.

This fascination with the in-between stemmed from Marsh-Watson experiencing many life transitions at the same time as loved ones in her life were going through transitions of their own. "The space between what was and what will be," is how she describes it. This space can be quiet, melancholy, unsettling, peaceful, or a bit of all of the above and more. And that's why you'll recognize natural and earthy colors, like deep blues and greens, within her show, and areas of warmth always peaking through. Because Marsh-Watson believes that in times of uncertainty, when you're "[leaving] something behind, but haven't quite arrived at whatever comes next," there is room for hope to exist, too.

Marsh-Watson's creative process for The Way Home was perfectly aligned with her belief. She'd "make a mark, react to it, cover something, reveal something else, and keep going until the work [began] to feel resolved." With repetitive marks, layers, lines, and gestures, she physically worked through her pieces "until it [began] to settle." She continued forward, even when unsure of where the piece—or where she—was going. She searches until it feels right.

"That process of searching is especially important," she says [emphasis mine]. Kristi Marsh-Watson's The Way Home is less about where you're going and more about how you're getting there and where you are in the process. While her personal places of transition are embedded in her work, she hopes viewers feel there is room to see theirs too.

Do you feel like you don't have a clear answer yet for something? Where can you stay Present during this uncertainty? What's in your background waiting for you to appreciate more? Stop for a moment. Look. Remember. Can you recognize something of your own way home? Kristi Marsh-Watson hopes you can.