Dropping off Work for "Being Between: Exploring Liminal Experiences through Drawing and Painting"

Work waiting to be hung at Gallery 126 for Being Between

Being Between: Exploring Liminal Experiences Through Drawing and Painting

Vanessa Osmon (My portion of the Artist Statement for Group Show with Hillary Price)

"Military spouses relocate every 2-3 years, often moving across cities, states, and countries. As a 20-year military spouse, I create drawings and paintings that reflect this constant state of transience or “disruption.”  Spouses, living in a continuous liminal state, never know where their next move will take them and what awaits them there.  

 My work explores these themes through a process akin to military life: the chaotic, relentless cycle of breaking down and starting over. I use line to draw and redefine figures, while broken color, spray paint, gouache, and oil paint destabilize them.  This is a visual representation of the disruptive mechanisms that shape their lives.  I repeat multiple times, creating a surface similar to a palimpsest; layered, unfinished, revealing traces of unresolved or previously drawn figures. I believe that, as military spouses repeatedly start over, they often find themselves caught between.

It is difficult to reach one’s full potential when one lives in a liminal state."

Above is my portion of the Artist Statement from our group show. Hillary and I were looking for common ground between our work when it occurred to me, "military spouses live in the 'in-between'." Liminal spaces and experiences are about being between—this idea of a transitional space or experience. So much of being a military spouse is about existing between and living with the unknown. Uncertainty plagues every new duty station or move. For example, you never know where you will move next until your service member gets their move papers—until then, it's just speculation and can change. Those papers arrive about a month before your scheduled move, making it hard to arrange for housing, apply to new jobs, enroll kids in school, find sitters, etc.

For myself and spouses that I know, this has left us in a constant state of limbo—or in between. I find myself coming up short as I try to summarize this in a quick post. So many of these emotions are tied to each and every work in this series. The abstract and realism entwined together by drawing create the expressive nature—each portrait and figurative piece explores a different theme or sentiment surrounding this "liminal experience."

(You can read the full statement on my website under the link "Being Between.)

So in October, my husband and I loaded up Tiny and headed to Gallery 126 in Florence. This gallery, a beautiful crsip space, is ideally located off of the main strip in downtown Florence. I was meeting the wonderful gallery studies student to drop off work. (She would do the bulk of the arranging and organizing.)

Tiny is the main means of transportion for exhibitions.

(Hillary's work is also bright, but her work uses painted and digital elements to explore her experiences as a neurodivergent individual.)

The nice part about this show is that it's in Florence and semi-local. Meaning, I didn't have to crate or ship anything. Tiny, ironically, was able to transport all 15 pieces of my work!

That's me, elated that the drop-off went smoothly.

I'm excited to see how these look installed in this space. (They looked amazing resting against the walls.) The front window opens onto Tombigbee and the room is flooded with natural light.

The show runs October 28th - December 13th, 2025 at Gallery 126, Tombigbee Street, Florence, AL.

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