Weight...

Weight   oil on canvas   48 x 36 x 1.5

the feeling of weight...is a fairly common human experience, I would think.  For the most part, I declare myself to be an optimist, but my days are full-up and sometimes it takes only one more tiny request to set my day into a tail-spin.  While more of us than not have overcome huge obstacles to get to where we want to be, it is, for me, a matter of perpetual shifting, sifting and sorting to keep my priorities in order. 

My current read is Supernormal by Meg Jay.  As it turns out, the most accurate predictor of those with grit, with determination and resilience, is LOVE... loving relationship(s) is what truly turns the tide...gets us over the hump.  My own personal hero is LeBron James, also an Akron-ite. 

This painting was 90% complete in the winter of 2016-17.  It was then propped against the wall and approached again this winter.  After years of trying to get portrait-perfect faces, I have been experimenting, for several years now,  with subduing the faces, in order to defer to the figure, or figures, in their gestural entities, for the purpose of more accurate story-telling.

The Mile High Book Club

Mile High Book Club   oil   24 x 12 x 1.5

is the result of study in my summer drawing class, but, in actuality, has been in my brain for a long while.  My husband and I love to read...and, sometimes, more than one at a time.  As a result, books tend to accumulate...here, there, everywhere.  Our shelves can no longer accommodate the overflow.  Our books rest in stacks surrounding our seating area where we coffee-and-read each morning.  One of the first things we do when we are expecting guests is to re-position, hide and file our stacks. 

In addition, precarious stacks of things reoccur in my work...perhaps an indication and constant reminder of the chaos that needs to be sorted (both material and emotional) in order to facilitate the calm and simplicity that we both desire.

My reference photos were shot on my patio....this smaller work represents approximately 1/3 of my arranged pile.  Passes were made top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top with a particular goal each time.  Relationships became super-important as I tried to establish a bit of back-and-forth rhythm that maintained at least a posture of stability. 

While I am happy and satisfied that one of my long-held ideas was realized, I found that a composition including so many objects severely restrained my need for creativity...just too many masters that needed to be obeyed.

There.  Done. 

Boyhood

Boyhood   oil   40 x 30 x 1.5

is a painting done from the heart.  Four boys are dangling from a cable over a river, into which they eventually plunged, I am sure.  Memories such as these are embedded in my soul.  Boys.  Dangling.  Fun.  For this work, the preparation was necessary and meticulous, as I wished for the group gesture to rule....I wanted to see these four bodies as one amoebic thing.  Everything related to everything else:  pairs of arms to pairs of arms; torsos to torsos; swim trunks to swim trunks; and legs to legs.  Not to mention the multitude of other relationships between the aforementioned parts.  The negative spaces were crucial for this to occur.  I wanted the feel of the moment to override any sense of reality.  I am reminded of this quote by Leonardo da Vinci:

Study the science of art.  Study the art of science.  Develop your senses - especially learn to see.  Realize everything connects to everything else.

Ah, yes.  Overwhelming but true.

Relationships

Kallie and Elmo   watercolor/gouache   16.5 x 10

It doesn't take a genius to understand that the more relationships one has, the more complex life is. Likewise with painting. The more subjects in the painting, the more complex it is, and the harder it is to achieve the gestalt, the higher order. It is indeed tempting to render all of the subjects at hand in all of their glorious detail. But I am a reductionist. I am trying to distill what is given to me into its absolute essence, that which I can savor and remember. In "Kallie and Elmo", the given is the relationship of a young girl and her puppy. I have come to the conclusion that the relationship of the two must be a higher priority than either Kallie or the puppy individually. (i.e. the taste of the souffle being greater than the sum of all of the ingredients) It definitely takes some restraint. I have some very bad still life paintings from the summer where each artist participant was asked to contribute one thing to the still life painting. The result: cacophony. You know what they say about experience? You know it's a mistake when you recognize it as such....... the second time around. I remember this painting in particular at is was one of the rare ones that seemed to paint itself.....that hardly ever happens. I am certain that Kallie is a beautiful young woman now.