New Painting, "Spaces in Our Togetherness"

24" x 28" x 1.5"

Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

“But let there be spaces in your togetherness and let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.”

 Kahlil Gibran

After I finished this painting, I tried to make some sense of it and figure out where it came from within me. Sometimes I know before I paint, and sometimes, as in the case of this one, it only becomes obvious afterwards. 

Anyone who follows my work can see that birch trees are one of my favorite subjects. They simultaneously convey a strength and frailty that I find fascinating. I looked at the painting above and realized that there are five trees in this one. "Why did I just paint 5 this time?", I asked myself. Then I realized that there are 5 people in my family and discovered upon reflection that this painting was inspired subconsciously by them. My husband and my three children are my whole world. However, without the spaces in our togetherness, without my time to myself, often spent in the studio, to nourish my spirit and my soul, I am not fully me. These spaces in our togetherness make us whole, make us strong, as much as anything else.

If you are interested in purchasing this painting, email me for details.

Collective Subconscious

20" x 52"
(3 Canvases, 16" x 20" each)
Oil and Mixed Media on Canvas

The Swiss pshychoanalyist Carl Jung suggested that we all share a reservoir of memories--the collective unconsciousness--which consists of common images or archetypes, expressed as kind or wicked people, good or evil spirits, images in nature, etc.  These are derived from the long experience of the human race, passed down in an unconscious mode from our ancestors.  Thus we may all share the same images within our dreams or nightmares.

Do you ever dream of trees, forests or a quiet sky?  Sometimes I dream of things over and over again, only to process these dreams through a painting and then find the image in my head is gone.

See My Light; Love My Dark

12" x 16" 1.5"
Acrylic and Mixed on Canvas

“There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion” -Carl Jung

The most terrifying thing is to accept yourself completely. I created this piece with the sentiment that nobody is perfect, everyone is flawed in some way.  When you truly learn how to love someone, you love them as a whole person.  You love the dark and the light.

Sunshower

12" x 12" x 1.5"

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

This is a new painting, part of my 'Four Seasons' series. I am always taken by a spot of rain when it's still sunny outside, and that little natural phenomenon has happened several times these past two weeks. I tried to use colors that capture this exact time of year, when summer is finally all around us.

I'm not a huge movie person, but one of my favorite films of all time is 1998's "Great Expectations" with Gwenyth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke. I watched that at a pivotal time in my life and I feel it heavily influenced my psyche and my artwork. The song, "Sunshower", by Chris Cornell, is featured on that soundtrack and is hauntingly beautiful, much like everything else in that film...

I hear you laughing

And my soul is saved

Crawl like ivy

Up my spine

Through my nerves

And into my eyes

Cuts like anguish

Or recollections

Of better days gone by

But it's all right

When you're all in pain

And you feel the rain come down

Oh, it's all right

When you find your way

Then you see it disappear

Oh, it's all right

Though your garden's gray

I know all your graces

Someday will flower

In the sweet sun shower

Eyes like oceans

So far away

A feather trail

To a better way

Worried mornings turn

Into days

Then into worried nights

But it's all right

Oh, in a sweet sun shower

It's all right

All you'll be you are today

A Poem for Wednesday

A Season's Awakening
16" x 16" x 1.5"
Acrylic andMixed Media on Canvas
Fine Art Giclee Print of this painting is available on my Etsy site:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/38363016/a-seasons-awakening

There is another sky
by Emily Dickinson

There is another sky,
Ever serene and fair,
And there is another sunshine,
Though it be darkness there;
Never mind faded forests, Austin,
Never mind silent fields -
Here is a little forest,
Whose leaf is ever green;
Here is a brighter garden,
Where not a frost has been;
In its unfading flowers
I hear the bright bee hum:
Prithee, my brother,
Into my garden come!