Cathy

Cathy   oil on canvas   12 x 9 x .5

is an amazing woman who posed for our class....and also the wife of one of the group artists.  She is and has been a teacher, a wife, a mother. an ardent supporter of her husband's work and a minister.  Her open and inquisitive nature provided a bond for me that allowed for a tender interpretation.  Before we painted, a genuine and positive observation was made by Sharon, another artist in the class.  Her observation:  Cathy is rosy.  That simple statement led my process.  Generalizations can be good...they take us away from the mass of detail before us and lead the way to the "gestalt".  After all, detail + detail = just more detail....and often too much.  I am grateful for Sharon's simple observation and also to have met this wonderful woman.

And....she reminded me of the inspirational book I read when my children were small about Alva Myrdal who postponed her career until later in life, after child-rearing responsibilities were somewhat lessened..  She was a Swedish sociologist and politician who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982. You go girls.

Ntozake Shange

i tried to love her fiercely   oil/canvas   48 x 24 x 1.5

If we are open to the universe, we can be inspired by our intake of all kinds of ideas: music, books, people, acts of kindness and events. Those small inspiration-bites hit me like a brick....make no mistake about it.....my right brain underlines, italicizes, and makes bold any notion that speaks to me personally. When my children were smaller, I was fortunate to complete one or two paintings during a calendar year. I read inspirational biographies of women like Alva Myrdal whose diplomatic career took off after child-rearing. Such is poetry of Ntozake Shange, an American poet who speaks to women and African-American women in particular. At a time when I was struggling so very much (more than now), trying to begin a career after my children were in school, I read her words: "i found god in myself/ and i loved her; i loved her fiercely". I needed empowerment. I needed to love myself. I needed to hear the words of Ntozake Shange. The Artists Archives of the Western Reserve Annual May Members Show opens May 1 with a reception from 6-8:30 pm and runs through June 4. The gallery is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are: W, Th and F from 10-4 and Sat from 12-4. The Artists Archives is located at E. 123rd Street in Cleveland in the same neighborhood as Cleveland Institute of Art.