The Lair Gallery LLC is a Woman owned and operated art gallery/event space located at 916 White Horse Pike. Oaklyn, New Jersey. Book The Lair by the hour for your small gatherings, events, private meetings or quiet workspace.
Open House Every Thursday from 6-8pm
~ Current Gallery Event ~
Purgatory Picnic
Between, a place of consideration. Before, a place hardly yet vividly remembered. After, a place unknown, curious, simultaneously desired and feared. Here is the place I go to sit with you, to dream with you, to laugh with you. Sometimes to cry with you, to wish you were here, and celebrate when you are. Wherever you are. This is a place between was and will be, where we can remember our playful energy under the sun, and feel our magic under the moon. Liminal field of tulips and dandelions, we laid under the stars where the earth held us closer. Weaving grass into jewelry to adorn our godly selves. Worshiped the abyss, the nothingness, for the creativity of boredom. You showed me a devil mask you made and I thought that was cool. We drew ants and plants and the breeze drew us, etched in time like a smiley face in cement. The sun was enticing, we run around from shade to light, soak it in like photosynthesis. The shadows dancing off the trees sang a song to you, I’m grateful you sang it to me later. Indulging in cheeses, I tell you how goat cheese reminds me of the goats I loved as a child. I tell you of Mego the goat, he was named after me, an honor bestowed by one of my favorite women. An elder wise goat farmer, bait shop owner, and animal rescuer. Her attic was a Guinea pig playground, a dedicated amusement park for them to have fun. How marvelous, enchanting even. A teacher of love I will never forget. The rain only started when we decided to swim in the river, “that’s strange”, you said, “do you think anyone is swimming in these water droplets? Do you think we are swimming in one?” I said of course because of course. “How many worlds are we in between while raining down through space and time?” Too many to count, I might web out, and try to reach them while we sleep. Maybe I’m reaching now, tethered to memories and dreams, best to not overthink it, and yet I do. To think this all started because you asked if I want to have a picnic with you.
Artists in Residence
MEg Waddington
Mega is a tradigital artist, making acrylic, gouache, and digital paintings that are surreal and dreamlike. Meg’s artistic journey was catalyzed by where they were raised, in the rural mountains of PA, the crabbing docks of Maryland, as well as spending time in Baltimore and Philadelphia with family. They were raised by a religious Christian family, which instilled atheism in them at a young age. The church was no holy place for Meg. Having a rather strange young life, Meg’s subconscious transmuted the days through vivid dreams early on. Meg turned to art, writing, and music for an outlet of free self expression. Being a queer nonbinary person, Meg felt the weight of those closest to them denying their truth, acting as god, and damning them for it. Isolated, Meg considered the hypocrisy, this all loving god can’t love me? Can’t love us as who we are? Meg decided, if this god won’t love them, they will love themself, and everyone denied love on the basis of puritanical beliefs. Meg does this by making art that represents and celebrates the fluidity of being and the multidimensional truths of life. Meg sees each person as god, as a universe of our own, who deserve to be respected and loved as such. Within this, the creativity and fluidity of nature became Mega’s religion. Their spiritual practice became making art and being in community within themself, with their friends, with life, and inherently, with death itself. Having lost people dear to them, who did see them truly and love them fully, Meg set out to live a life in honor of them. And in honor of the loving people still here. Through creating art, Meg honors and cherishes the stories, perspectives, and experiences we all carry. They recognize that spirituality needs no religion, it is spiritual to simply be alive. They open portals within their work to establish cosmic alters for us to connect with those who are no longer in this earthly realm. A place to walk between worlds, hold space for connection, community, and remembrance of the love we share. Meg opens this art series, “Purgatory Picnic” to imagine a realm where purgatory is a wholesome place, where we can come together with those of us living and those who once lived. To remind us that we can establish our own heaven wherever we go, we can rest, we can dance, we can ponder anything and everything, if even for a moment, life could be a picnic.
