Cynthia MacCollum : Portfolio : Thirteen Moons : Strawberry Moon

Portfolio > Thirteen Moons > Strawberry Moon

Strawberry Moon, June 24, 2021

The Rule: Take a photo with my mind anywhere in the Nature Center; go home and paint the memory.

Suite of 24 6x4” watercolor paintings

I often begin each moon by putting several rules into practice to find what feels right. The two rules for Strawberry Moon were memory paintings and video. This is the rare moon where I completed both ideas for all 24 visits. While in the middle, I couldn’t decide which rule was the strongest. I enjoyed the memory paintings more, partly because there were no mosquitos attacking me as I tried to hold my phone steady.
The experience of painting from memory was revelatory. Difficult at first, with nothing to “look” at except my mind’s eye, they became deeply fulfilling as the project unfolded. These small memory paintings come closest to expressing my feeling of being in the nature center, more than any photograph, or painting of a photograph, ever could.
The Strawberry Moon is so named because it coincides with the time of ripening strawberries.