Painting Pain....

Still having a seeming unending struggle with my shoulders and neck, I have been really limited in doing any painting or working on the computer. Though really frustrating and at moments discouraging, I have taken this week to do a lot of thinking (since I am most comfortable flat out.) I may have worked myself beyond muscle soreness to strain and now possibly something worse. I am hoping a very long massage will help on Sunday along with some rehab at home. I am ready to get back at it as that enormous stag painting stares back at me every time I wander into the studio along with several in process canvases.

We had quite the blizzard here along with several smaller snow storms over the last month, but all is on for the opening of "Myth and Mystery" Saturday night. If you are in the area, ride over to the gallery and join us for food, wine and art. There is a brand new parking garage right next to the gallery, lots of great places to have a nice dinner and the ice skating plaza will be open.

Today's Painting

These little birds are so delicate. I used the goldcrest, a European bird, for most of the detail, but changed the markings some. This is evolving in that magical sort of way created things can....one stroke at a time.

On the Easel: Phobetor

It is really difficult to photograph these dark paintings in various stages. I am afraid to take it out to shoot because it freaks out my neighbors. The paintings, I mean. Not for everyone, I get it, people.

But I am really excited about where this is going and you can get the general gist from a less than optimal image. Looking for moths now, that will be emerging from the cocoons.....is it synergy, or something more sinister?

Thoughtful Thursday

Over a period of a few years, the figure has disappeared from my painting. I have thought a lot about this over the months wondering why animals have become the centerpiece of my life's work. In my artist statement, I speak of a love affair with animals from an early age:

"As a child, my three-ring binder full of drawings of horses was a prized possession. In my mind, horses have a mystical, almost phantom-like quality that I became drawn to from an early age. I became transfixed just seeing one in an open field. Today, I recognize this mark in all animals as the fingerprint of the infinite imagination of the Creator. There is a kind of communion that takes place between me and God when painting or in the presence of animals."

Even reading it now, there is a sense of incompleteness to those words, something deeper that I cannot seem to excavate. I suppose it is a journey of sorts and as I find out more about myself, which I believe is expressed in choice of subject, I then understand the connection increasingly. It is very much like peeling an onion. The intimacy with which I feel connected to the work can be very overwhelming. Why? Such mysteries of the human soul.......

I had a hard time getting to sleep last night after seeing a film short about the fate of racehorses once their careers are over, and I feel rather heavy-hearted and introspective today. I see inconsistencies in myself and asking some very hard questions has been a long time coming. Information is power, but it is also often quite painful.

With Dunny