I am a mother, artist and craftivist. My current work is an exploration of balancing the demands of raising two young kids with a self-preserving need to create; all against the backdrop of the beauty and heartbreak of Appalachia. What started out as a mundane task has become my absorbing errand. Each day that I pick up my children from school (a 25-minute drive, one way through rural Appalachia) I shoot photos with my iPhone from the window of my truck. Shooting
blind from the window allows for accidental beauty and a compositional discovery of what's been captured. What once was a drive consumed by thoughts and worries of daily life has now
become my new creative space. Once in the student pickup line, I select, edit and post one photo for the day to Instagram (instagram.com/wendyviny) and facebook. As an artist with young
children, this process allows me the opportunity to work, to learn, to engage, while on the fly. I am now in my eighth year of the practice. With over 700 photos of a rural landscape that happens between my front door and the school, I now have a record of a small part of the world with its endless visual surprises. As my treasure trove of images grow so does the possibilities of these little captured moments. I am currently hand printing these photos onto vintage fabrics and adding more to their story with acrylics, collage, inks and hand-stitching. These pieces are simultaneously melancholy and hopeful and have become my visual voice of a life lived in Appalachia.