Hazel Darlene McCoy

I graduated from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio in 1973 with a Bachelors Degree in Systems Analysis and Mathematics. I worked in the corporate world as a Systems Engineer until 1979 when I left my career to travel the United States, exploring wilderness areas, progressive and alternative communities, alternative lifestyles and healing practices, and most importantly, the growth of my own consciousness.

There is an ecstasy and freedom in nature, in the play of light on texture, and in the subtle communication that is always occurring in the background of sound. In 1983, I began attempting to capture this subtle unveiling with the use of a camera.

Many of my photographs reveal a story of human life sculpted by weather upon form, as though etched by the tears of those who lived the story using the earthly universal tools of wind and rain. Other images are simply the rendering of feeling using color, texture, light, shadow, placement of focus, and at times, movement or the reflection of movement.

There is also a magical door I enter through painting. Some of my paintings are realistic. Others are an expression of passion that may only in their final stage become abstractly recognizable as the subject upon which I was focused. I usually prefer the latter, beginning a painting with a splash of emotion on paper or canvas. Then working through those emotions while allowing my inner vision to bring forth a reverie of resolution in sound and imagery, expanding my awareness of the subject while creating new pathways for me in my world.

After painting, I remain enraptured watching flowing paint strokes enliven the color of my dreams as I drift off into my never-never land.

On the left, is a lighthouse tower situated on the Atlantic coast, looking west. On the right, is a grounded submarine in the south pacific with a once great Samurai Warrior standing ready for defense on the Asian front. This picture depicts back-to-back arrangements overseen by 4th dimensional persuasion

On the left is a Samurai swimming east in the Pacific. On a layer in front of and below the Samurai, is the body of a priestess, dreaming, on a stone stairway of ceremony, on an island in the sea. On the right, is a North Atlantic fisherman of Celtic or Norse descent, pulling in the debris of wars, within it’s midst, a grayish log, the bone of a once great, now forgotten, fallen tree. The heavenly realm in this picture depicts Earth spinning on an axis tethered to it's clouds.

On the left, is the fisherman trawling in his catch off America’s North Atlantic coast. The net stretches across the southern oceans to a pristine blooming mushroom. An Asian Imperial Guard is pointing out this pristine work of nature to the North Atlantic fisherman whose catch is full of the debris and snares of many fallen, many bled, along with one precious old gray log. The heavenly realms of this picture indicate the coming of the blue ribbon trade of easy car transport and global industrialization. Ocean waves are stirring from the Imperial Guard's helmet in response to a girl catching a breezy ride atop a convertible, horns blowing across America.