Flight of Fancy

Ascension   oil/canvas   24 x 48 x 1.5

This painting, is, was a flight of fancy for me.  While based in reality (the reference photos were shot at the parade in University Circle  Cleveland several years back), its intention is simply "upwards".  During this weird time period of sickness and fear, I needed this flight of fancy to maintain equilibrium, a return to a positive outlook when faced with so much turmoil and distress.

Actually, my brain takes MANY flights of fancy each day.  I am not sure if this happens to anyone else, or to everyone.  But I can say for certain, that these little mind travels are imperative to my emotional well being.  It is only when my mind is otherwise occupied with sociability and tasks that life becomes, well, dull and static. 

And, as sychronicity would have it, I am currently reading my first ever surrealistic work, Nadja by Andre Breton.  He questions whether or not we are defined by the lives we lead on a daily basis OR by the surprises, the flights of fancy, that we take.

And, so it is that this work is a bit of, I believe, surrealism on my part.  My flight of fancy.

The Letting Go..the real + the imagined...carousel

The Letting Go   oil/canvas   40 x 30 x 1.5

was painted fairly recently as a therapeutic work for myself....and vicariously for a friend.  The work was created from many photos taken click-click-click.....style on a beautiful spring morning in Boston.  The figure is a composite of two separate girls. The face is made up and played down to increase the power of the overall figure.  The arm is made up.  I modeled my own hand.  The horse is a composite of real and imagined.   The interior of the carousel's roof  was flattened into a 2-dimensional pattern.  I was concerned with the overall lightness of the bottom of the canvas.  I was advised at a recent critique to leave it alone and consider the work finished.  Terrific.  Using a design-centered approach can leave one up in the air as far as a cemented finish as there are always patterns that can be enhanced.  OK.  Wonderful.  There was also a comment regarding the lack of sheen on the painted surface.  Up until now, I have used a 5:1:1 medium mix of turpentine: stand oil: damar varnish.  I may experiment with a 50:50 mix of turpentine:stand oil.

Learn.  Re-learn.  Keep moving.