Something Different

A Place to Bark ~ 12″ x 12″ x 1″ ~ mixed media on wood panel
I don’t usually do cute paintings, but this one is for a very good cause. I am currently showing several landscape and animal paintings at The Flatbread Company in Canton, CT. Flatbread’s philosophy is very community oriented and committed to helping organizations and charities raise money. Part of this approach invloves local artists who show their work and then demo a painting on two evenings during their show. At the end of the show, the demo painting is auctioned and the proceeds go to a charity of the artist’s choice.

My show is coming down this weekend, and on Friday night we will hold a silent auction of this sweet little painting. I will donate the proceeds to A Place to Bark, Bernie Berlin’s animal rescue. She is doing such an amazing job of rescuing animals from high-kill shelters, getting them the medical attention they need and fostering them until they can be properly placed. Please consider donating to her mission (because that’s truly what it is) and helping some of God’s little creatures who don’t have a voice of their own. You can make a donation by clicking on the link belo

Anyone who happens to be in the area this weekend, please stop by and bid on the painting! The auction will run for three days, and in addition to helping a worthy cause, you can take home a really nice painting!

Sigh…

journal page – 8/26/07
I look up and see the leaves changing; I look down and along the sides of the road are piles of dry leaves that have already begun to fall. And this morning, the alarm sounded at 4:45, officially sending me back to my academic routine. I wonder where I will carve out the time to paint and write and visit. I’ve never been one to make resolutions, preferring instead to formulate strategies. We’ll see…

Fall Reverie

If I seem to run in
circles, forgive me,
I am used to chasing
my own tail until the giddiness
of spinning cools me down.
Then breathless,
I may take a moment or two
to settle and see the multicolored
glory of fall,
gold-fanned leaves
pressed flat and sodden
after a day of rain,
a season at its peak of beauty
full but fragile
so you know from experience,
bound to disappear.

– Bhikshuni Weisbrot

Visitor on Ancient Wings

On Ancient Wings ~ !6″ x 20″ x 1″ mixed media on wood panel
The Moment

The moment when, after many years
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,

is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can’t breathe.

No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.

– Margaret Atwood (1939 – )

The painting above is a smaller incarnation of an earlier painting Tiny Sky, which sold during my show last May. In addition to being a bit smaller and on wood instead of canvas, there are several subtle differences in color, composition and content. It is available for purchase at The Insiders/Outsiders Gallery.

I miss her already…

I finally finished my painting for Susan Tuttle’s book and sent it off yesterday. It’s funny… I am discovering how those paintings that give me the most trouble end up being my best. I also become very attached to them. Many people liken the creation of art to giving birth, but I think the process of painting a challenging piece is more than that; it’s like raising a child through an easy birth, a hyperactive childhood, a troubled adolescence, and then experiencing the magical transformation that often occurs in early adulthood. After all I’ve been through with this painting, I’d love to keep her around for a while to enjoy her beauty, her wit, her multi-faceted personality, but… she has places to go and people to meet. I’ll see her again sometime next year, first on the pages of Susan’s book, and finally when she returns home for a visit.

Oh she was a rare thing, fine as a bee’s wing
So fine a breath of wind might blow her away
She was a lost child, oh she was running wild
She said “As long as there’s no price on love, I’ll stay
And you wouldn’t want me any other way”

– Richard Thompson – from Bee’s Wing