Selections From my Final exhibit of the Year
at the Fellowship Center, Unitarian Universalist's in Ephraim WI
October 2014
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Me with Franne Dickinson who dropped in to see the work and offer some encouragement.
Jan and her husband, artist Emmett Johns with Steve Lavell
Artist Sally Everhardus and Steve Lavell. Sally and I have exhibited together twice this year, begining the season with the Door Community Charitable Foundation exhibit in late May, and ending the season with this UU show in October. Steve was our entertainment for the afternoon, playing guitar.
And now for something completely different......
SHIELD PAINTINGS
Animal Imagery and exercises in meditation
Incubator-2014
Lunar Landing- 2014
My painting activity has slowed somewhat, since my last (August) blog posting I have undergone total knee replacement, which put me in the hospital for two days and nights, then a conga line of physical therapy sessions ensued, meeting every other day for the next five weeks. I slept a lot, I iced a lot and I read a lot. But I didn't paint, nor did I cook, or swim, activities that I usually pursue with great discipline. I quickly graduated from the walker to a cane, and finally was able to manuever sans aide, walking the dog for about a half mile daily, and have returned to swimming that same distance at the pool in our local YMCA. I also returned to the studio sometime in late October, and even managed to debut the series of abstract work I spent almost the entire year on, at a two person show at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall and Gallery space, once again showing with Sally Everhardus, as shown above.
I wonder where the people are who might find something that resonates within my paintings. Maybe I have some form of attention deficit syndrome, I now find myself coping with the world news and urge to run away and hide, or go out and scream and rant... and painting seems as good a place as any to go and hide for hours at a time.
The rabbit has been with me since my first art work that I can remember making, I drew and colored a rabbit, it was pink, and I glued a cotton ball to its bottom, and cut it out and carried it with me, in my pocket, when I was probably barely 4 years old. I clearly remember placing the rabbit in the glove box of our 1948 Buick, and when I went to retrieve it later, it had been crunched and tossed by someone, not realizing what it meant to me. The rabbit is a harbinger of fertility, creativity and mischief in some cultures. The rabbit is journeying to the moon in a boat, to sweep the moon clean, in Japanese mythology, and as I look to the night sky, I think about that and wonder what kind of junk must be on the moon these days. We follow the rabbit down the hole, we get Easter eggs from the rabbit, we carry it's foot, or used to when I was a kid, in hopes it brings good luck. So the rabbit was my first choice in my animals and myth series. My rabbit in Lunar Landing is busy at the edge of the dark side of the moon, cleaning it, or eating the darkness away, to reveal the lighter side, the side reflecting the sun.
Incubator focuses on the balance between destruction and creation. The turtle to me is a slow but determined creature, who out of the mud and muck, creates a place that is nurturing and full of life. A friend suggested too, that the turtle lives between two worlds, of air, land and light, as well as darkness, water, muck and unseen worlds, both hold on to life, both are necessary to create a whole, a balance. My turtle is placed as if on a banner, the animals become a form of heraldry.
In the coming months, I hope to launch into several more "Shield Paintings" which explore the use of animal symbolism and convey my feelings and impressions of thoughtful contemplation andmeditative awareness.
