Carmen Fitzgerald

Watercolorist, genealogist & keeper of Southern stories — Carriere, Mississippi

I'm Carmen — 73 years young, born and raised along the Pearl River. My days are spent mixing pigments, tracing the branching lines of family trees, and listenin' to Mahalia Jackson while the garden grows. I believe that every hand that creates with patience is doin' sacred work, whether it's paintin' a watercolor petal or chartin' a course to the Moon.

Summer Moon Festival commemorating the Apollo 11 moon landing in Wapakoneta, Ohio
Summer Moon Festival, Wapakoneta, Ohio — where Neil Armstrong walked before he walked on the Moon. (NASA, public domain)

Featured Essay

"My mama used to say that every great journey begins with a map drawn by somebody who cared. The same steady hand that painted watercolor blues also charted the path to the Moon. This is a story about precision, patience, and the quiet artistry behind Apollo 11."

Read: The Steady Hand →

What I'm Workin' On

Right now I'm tendin' to a few things at once — a family history of the Pearl River delta, a mixed-media series on Southern oral traditions, and this little corner of the internet where I make sense of the world through my own eyes.

Come back often. I'm buildin' this place one careful brushstroke at a time.

My World

What I Know

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What I've Made

What I Say