turning lemons... to paint

So, I didn’t get the job I wanted. J. pointed out that this experience was a good way of lining up our lives with God’s will for us. I definitely had the “I want’s” when it came to having steady, full time employment with benefits, and as the Buddha says “Suffering is caused by desire.” Sigh. There are so many spiritual platitudes to get me through my trials. Still, I get to keep my adjunct status which means I am teaching so there is some money coming in, and it gives me more time to focus on what I want which is to paint, to get into shows, galleries, juried exhibitions and, in short, to be an artist, not a teacher. So today I pulled myself up by the proverbial bootstraps (which incidentally is where we get the idiom “to boot up a computer”) and made a painting. It was fun, it was gloriously messy, and it was mine. So I put it up here for y’all to enjoy, and please, no sad “I’m so sorrys” we are well past that now… But if you want to shamelessly heap praises on the art it is much appreciated :)



These works are a continuation of themes executed in paint over the past few years. In these works, the layering of images and painted swatches adds both a physical depth and a sense of romantic mystery. The painted swatches of canvas come from my own recycled paintings what have been cut and reassembled here to form a new body of work while collaged images come from prints scanned from a series of books handed down to my by my grandmother. These images are transferred directly onto the canvas along with the adhered swatches of painted canvas creating works which effectively acquire layers of meaning and age represented both by the history of my own work and the family history associated with my grandmother’s book collection. These images are, paradoxically, depersonalized and isolated, yet also universal, demanding quiet contemplation by the viewer.