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Thursday, June 30, 2011

The ideas that won't go away...a carousel and its implications...The Letting Go

are the ones to which we need pay attention.  The notion of a calliope has long been one of those ideas for me.  Many times observed.  Many times photographed.  During a recent trip to Boston we happened upon a calliope filled with children, some smiling and some hesitant, on a brisk sunny morning.  I stood at the edge and kept snapping photos, one after the other.  "The Letting Go" is the resultant painting, one I have been thinking about for years and years.  My attraction is definitely not nostalgic....although I have seen some delightful paintings that exude this quality.  My idea has more to do with leaving the "round and round", about becoming fearless, and about letting go of past hurts and hurtful relationships.  A spinning away from the expected and the predictable. The painting was created from many references including my own hand.  The most difficult part to resolve was the value one....I was shooting for a light-filled canvas.  Yet, I am value painter and needed to  include powerful darks....that is who I am.  I feel that I came to a useable compromise.

Last night on "So You Think You Can Dance", one of the beautiful choreographies was conceived from this same concept.  Interesting!  Synchronicity.

The Letting Go