Rare Bird Hosts Pamela Huffman’s 'In the Absence of Nurture… Nature'

Who should I run into at Rare Bird Coffee Roasters yesterday, March 18, but Pamela Huffman, the acclaimed local mixed-media, acrylic artist featured in the café's new solo art exhibition, 'In the Absence of Nurture… Nature,' running now through June 15.

Rare Bird, the popular purveyor of freshly-roasted coffee in the Little City at 230 W. Broad St., is the City's only downtown café passionately devoted to supporting local artists, prominently hosting throughout its beautifully adorned spaces, four solo art exhibitions of local artists' works per year.

For the show, featured artist, Pamela Huffman, describes herself as "an abstract mixed-media artist, poet, and writer." She wrote, "In addition to creating art, she's a curator and community organizer in the arts."

"Over the past few years, Pam has helped organize and juried shows in Virginia. As the chair of the Future Planning Committee at Falls Church Arts, she is charged with juror outreach and has facilitated more than 30 shows bringing together area artists," Huffman continued. "As a co-founder of Lift Creative Collective, Pam enjoys supporting fellow female artists in the D.C. area. In 2024, Pam was awarded a grant to be the Curating Artist in Residence for Idylwood Studios in Falls Church. Pam is currently training to be a docent with the Smithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery. She believes all of us are artists and that we are all capable of creating meaningful work." 

"This show, 'In the Absence of Nurture… Nature,' captures my internal language as it relates to my upbringing," said Huffman. "I was raised in a loving household that was shattered by shame, trauma, grief, and abandonment. While love was a constant, attachment and nurturing were often outside of the abilities of my family members."

"These works of art focus on adoption, loss of a sibling, divorce, and the yearning for a sense of belonging in a family that was coming unglued," Huffman continued. "Also present in this show are tributes to the natural elements that provided me solace in difficult times – stones, trees, flowers, water, sunsets and the warmth of summer. I also included two pieces that are odes to my husband, Michael, who provided the nurturing I had always searched for.”

I asked Huffman how it felt to have her works on display for this solo exhibition with so many personal themes. "I can't say what it means to have my work up here and what it means to me," she said, tearing up. "...to have members of the community see this work I've created in response to life. I mean, I was just sitting over there and a woman came over and said, 'Wait, are you the artist?' And, I was like [in a hushed voice] 'I am the artist.' I mean, it means so much to me to have the support of this community."

Huffman agreed that the sense of "connection" she was feeling was the "opposite" of the theme of "abandonment" so prevalent in the show, and perhaps that's part of what was sparking so much emotion.

Describing to me her artistic techniques, creative processes, and works displayed, Huffman focused particularly on two of her works capturing her personal journey from "nurture to nature."

"I think the idea behind [the nurture/nature theme] is that I was looking for attachment and connection and support in a family where it just wasn't possible to have that," Huffman said. "And so I went to nature, looking for that solace and that support. So, that's sort of the genesis of the show."

For Huffman – who only took up arts intensively in 2018 – she has found solace and healing from her evolving artistic processes, beginning as an abstract acrylic artist pursuing "intuitive" impulses, then evolving into more "intentional" mixed-media, embedded subtly with personal family history artifacts and symbolism. "As my work progressed," Huffman told me, "I moved more to including old photos from my family and old documents that I found in my family's files and then I incorporated those into the art pieces. So it became more intentional."

Pointing to "The Work of a Lifetime," Huffman said, "This is the final piece I made for the show – as a counterpoint – because for me it's really about trying to be the person who breaks the cycle of their generational trauma. That's what I aim to be. I mean, I haven't been successful all the time – nobody can be. But that's sort of part of my charter as a mom, to try to overcome."

The work is laced with subtle and poignant symbolism. The flowers are "gifts" Huffman "wished [she] had in my family of origin," as well as what she wished to give her and Michael's own two children as they were growing up. Huffman also chose ivy, "for attachment," eucalyptus, "for protection," Queen Anne's Lace, "for sanctuary," and dogwood, "for the knowledge that love can overcome adversity." As she looks ahead, she's "excited to see what flowers my children decide to give to their future children."

Huffman then walked me over to her mixed-media sculptural work, "Family Secrets," explaining, "I grew up in a family filled with secrets."

"To some extent I've always carried those secrets," she continued. "So I created this piece which is a photo of a forest and then these [stick] pieces I harvested from near my house and they're Porcelain Berry vine and if you leave these unchecked, they'll pull down an entire forest over time. So I wrote all of my family's secrets from my family's origin – like there's one right there [points] – and then I went to Tint Maker Space which is a great little shop over here, and Carissa helped me pick out the fabrics that she thought would be the best."

"So all the secrets are literally in these packets?," I asked. "Yes. They're in there," Huffman said. "And I sewed each of the little sachets around my secrets. And then my friend and my neighbor saw this one with the keys and holes on it, so she gave me these keys [points to the keys in the work] from her personal collection and they're just hidden in there [throughout the piece]."

Visitors to Rare Bird who take the time to look closely and thoughtfully at Huffman's works are sure to experience a wide range of emotions and delights as they appreciate her masterful themes, compositions, tones, textures and color choices, but also all her many intertwining symbolic elements.

And be sure to read each artwork's blurb carefully to fully appreciate Huffman's subtleties and artistic intentionality.

Here's a video showcase with Pamela Huffman when she served as Juror for the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts's "Winter Blues" show in Dec. 2023.

Running March 16 through June 15, 'In the Absence of Nurture… Nature,' is at Rare Bird Coffee Roasters, 230 West Broad St. Rare Bird's hours are Monday – Friday 6:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 7:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. For media inquiries, contact: Pamela Huffman, 703-362-4078. Instagram: @huffman.art.haus. Email: pamelahuffmanart@gmail.com.