Week 16: "Duality"

Week 16: "Duality"

This weeks piece was inspired by two different sources. The first being that the day I painted it was Earth Day, and second was a thought that has been running through my head.

There is black and white, right and wrong, light and dark. It all comes down to what helps and what hinders us. The flower that inspired me was the Belladonna.  For those who may not know, the belladonna has  medicinal properties for those who can't sleep, but taking  just a little too much can cause death. 

It is said that there is always two sides to the story.  It is my belief that we all have these two sides in our lives. We can either be the healer or the heretic.  That we as humans can create and destroy, always dancing on that fine line between the two.  I have found we do this with our Earth and more importantly we do this to our fellow humans. Today in the world there are too many of us that walk that fine line between beauty and destruction. 

I have learned that life is delicate like a belladonna. The beauty of this flower, just like life itself, is in it's duality.

Week 15: "Voodoo"

Week 15: "Voodoo"

Passion can have a strange mystical power over someone.  It is my belief that passion can cause such a rapture that it can take over our senses, our thoughts, even our souls. I find that my passion in life can be my greatest strength, and my biggest downfall.  

Like a mist lightly rolling over water, passion can take over me and seduce me in places in my mind that I never dreamed possible. It seduces me like a lover, sexually charging the very deepest recesses of  my psyche.  When it takes over me I completely loose all command of my body, mind, and soul. Its as if someone is there using some invisible string moving every part of my body.  

Lustfully starved for its mental stimulation, passion can leave me like a addict without a drug.  While I sit there staring at a blank canvas with nothing on it, I go through inspirational withdrawal.  My body craves passion to fulfill that longing and my mind starves for validation of my existence.


Passion's uncontrollable spell over someone such as me is like some great being holding a doll.  Pushing in pins, covering it's face, and binding me with it's Voodoo. 

Week 14:"A Mid Summer Night's Dream"

 

Week 14: " A Mid Summer Night's  Dream"

*Actual size of piece is 8.75" (w) x 46" (l) 

After re-reading A Mid Summer Night's Dream by Shakespeare, I decided to let myself get lost in a dream. I wanted to see where my mind would take me.  While my mind wandered like Lysander and Demetrius going to battle deep in the woods , I too got lost in the mist of what my mind saw. I began to see what Puck saw, a world of magic. A world of mystery. If all the world is a stage, then I feel that my mind is the playground-especially dreams.  

I have always believed that dreams can be a canvas to express our deepest and most passionate emotions, and our darkest desires at play.

Dreams, like the music from an instrument, or the words of a poet, can be unlimited when they become a creative force.  In my dreams  the visions can be so intense that I can feel my senses exploding all at once. The thing I love about those moments is that everything is limitless. When I dream anything, everything is possible, even passion with my most unattainable physical attractions. Where but in that playground can we have the boy of our "dreams" and live happily ever after, or win the battle of our own mortality. When in our daily lives can we let our inhibitions go and follow through with our personal desires, without causing catastrophic consequences? The only place is during a night's dream.

Note: This piece is a special size, there will only be 4 over-sized works during this series. This is 1 of 4. The actual size of the piece is:

8.75 inches wide  x  46 inches in length 

The picture to the right is a up close detail clip of this week's painting.  

Remember all paintings at $52.00 plus tax. 

Week 13: "Tarnished"

Week 13: "Tarnished"

As I worked on this weeks painting from the home of my parents, in my home town, I began to think about where my life has taken me.  This all began from staring at a old metal antique that adorns the house.  I think of how I started in life as always the good shiny person, but just like the old metal antique I began to have things happen in my life that coated me in a film of mistakes, dust, jadedness.


Polishing off the years of hurt, pain, and self destruction is like a gentle cleaning away of years of dust and grim that cover the beauty beneath. As you slowly peal back the layers the shine and natural luster begins to show its self once again.  Just like with myself, as I began to slowly polish away the years of the resentments and the pain of life experiences, I have to be gentle with myself.  If we try to clean away the layers to quickly or with to much force we may cause more lasting damage. We may scratch the beautiful shine below.  I found its important to give time it's time when cleaning away the spiritual muck from myself. 


Slowly, but surely,  we can start to see the radiant gleam of the being that we can be.  We can all slowly wipe away the years of tarnish, as long as as were gentle with ourselves and give ourselves time, we can get back to the beautiful, shining, selves below the years of tarnish.