NOTE: I wrote this BEFORE I titled each piece. Writing to you helps! Usually when I create a painting, I know what it is about and have at least part of the title in mind BEFORE I begin. Sometimes, though rarely, I just want to paint something beautiful and knowledge of a title is vague. In these cases, I just stick on a title at the end. With these four new pieces, it was different entirely. (READ MORE BELOW) Without Words #1: her words 30" x 30", 2012, $300There has been so much going on with my children and their feelings of exclusion due to food. Beyond Celiac Disease and Eosinophilic Esophagitis, we have also become acutely aware of how every child-centered activity (both at school and beyond) seems to revolve around pizza, cupcakes, candy, or some other unhealthy food. This scares us because of the rise in childhood obesity. Though difficult, we do realize that this awareness is one of the gifts that have come from our "difference." When I initially started to paint I was really thinking about children, our culture of food and obesity, my own children's vulnerability, exclusionary food, etc. (READ MORE BELOW) Without Words #2: wrapped rabbit 18" x 26", 2012, $200I started by painting beautiful cakes with children stuck in them as cake toppers, some with glass cases around them. I prepared the paper in shades of gray, cut them to size, and began painting. The cakes WERE beautiful, but there was no "bite," no contrast, nothing to grip the viewer visually or emotionally. I repeatedly painted over them and started again. Finally they emerged into something very different. (READ MORE BELOW) Without Words #3: milagros 14" x 18", 2012, SOLDThese works are still about a child's vulnerability. . . . but they are also about a child's strength within the fragility. Really though, I have no words for these paintings. They touch me deeply. I don't know how to title them. My inability to title these paintings really goes along with my recent lack of words. (READ MORE BELOW) Without Words #4: their words silence her 22" x 30" 2012, $275Feeling blessed, overwhelmed, confused about the right path, the right course of action, on the edge of something powerful regarding advocacy for my children, but not there yet... there are no words. My children DO have words. I listen. Their words are so profound that they silence me. There are a few titles in here, somewhere. :) Writing this note to you has taken me all day, leaving it and coming back to it. I will now write the titles , which will likely contain words. There is both fault and good in that. Thank you for "listening."
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Batship Crazy or Head-shaking Disbelief, 48” x 48”, mixed media on canvas, 2012, $350 There was recently a very sad loss in our extended family. I really have no words, and so many, and am shook to the core. These paintings show this dear person's mother, any mother's disbelief, my own guilt of being far away, and the way life takes hold of you---whether you allow it to or not. Nostalgic for Symmetry and Repetition, 48” x 48”, mixed media on canvas, 2012, $350 Nostalgic for the Present, 48” x 48”, mixed media on canvas, 2012, $350
My feeling as a mother.... hanging on to every moment, as it happens, sighing wistfully in the present moments, the irony of this. As I am writing this, I just realized how personal all of these paintings are to me. There has been much happening in our lives lately. I do believe that the more specific and detailed you are with imagery, the more people your work reaches. The more personal it is, the more universal it becomes. If you are not totally honest about the ins and outs of it all, you are not speaking to anyone. the caring and keeping of, 14” x 18”, acrylic, watercolor, gesso, wc paper, $110 framed (frame is a gift to you) This is a painting of my father when he was very young. He is now almost 80. He had just gone into the hospital the day before this was painted. Here, to me, he looks vulnerable, strong, creepy, beautiful. My dad was a carpenter and a shop teacher. When I was young, we were very close. This is me thinking of the incredible, huge arc any life takes on in the course of 80 years. CRECEN APARTE, CRECEN JUNTOS, 30" x 30", mixed media on watercolor paper, $300 framed (the frame is a gift) Siblings bound together always, but with different paths. I know even as they grow apart, they will grow together. It was not like that for my sisters and I, it was very different. But I know they are even stronger than we are. a hug, 12” x 18, acrylic, watercolor, gesso, wc paper, $110 framed (frame is a gift to you)
Here is a painting of a relationship, always many layered. My attempt to communicate.... |
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