Today, I Wake Up and Love You

11" x 14"
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

This painting was commissioned by a dear friend's husband for her as a Mother's Day gift. First of all, kudos to any hubby with three young kids (including twins under one) who has the foresight to come up with such a thoughtful gift to his wife for Mother's Day. Mr. O gave me creative carte blanche, just asking that the painting be something that incportporates their three children and the love and admiration he has for his wife.

I wanted to create something that captured how beautiful Mrs. O is, both inside and out, and how full of life so I went with the floral theme. One song I always sing to my own kiddos is "Three Little Birds", by Bob Marley, so that's sort of wehre the birds came from...each one represents one of their little ones.

I also love the quote:
Life began with waking up and loving my mother's face.
- George Eliot, English novelist

This is kind of where I derived the title, but I wanted the title to convey something meaningful that could be said to each person in their family, including from a husband to a wife.

A Poem for Wednesday

Dance in the Sun
12" x 24"
Acrylic andMixed Media on Canvas
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38863596

Let it enfold you
by Charles Bukowski (excerpt)

either peace or happiness,
let it enfold you

when I was a young man
I felt these things were
dumb, unsophisticated.
I had bad blood, a twisted
mind, a precarious
upbringing.

I was hard as granite, I
leered at the
sun.
I trusted no man and
especially no
woman.

I was living a hell in
small rooms, I broke
things, smashed things,
walked through glass,
cursed.
I challenged everything,

I changed jobs and
cities, I hated holidays,
babies, history,
france, italy, walnuts and
the color
orange.

peace and happiness to me
were signs of
inferiority,
tenants of the weak
an
addled
mind.

but as I went on with
my alley fights,
my suicidal years,
my passage through
any number of
women — it gradually
began to occur to
me
that I wasn't different
from the
others, I was the same,

they were all fulsome
with hatred,
glossed over with petty
grievances,
the men I fought in
alleys had hearts of stone.
everybody was nudging,
inching, cheating for
some insignificant
advantage,
the lie was the
weapon and the
plot was
empty,
darkness was the
dictator.

cautiously, I allowed
myself to feel good
at times.
maybe the other life had worn me
down.
I no longer found
glamour
in topping somebody
in conversation.

I re formulated
I don't know when,
date, time, all
that
but the change
occurred.
something in me
relaxed, smoothed
out.
I no longer had to
prove that I was a
man,

I didn't have to prove
anything.

(the whole world is at the
throat of the world,
everybody feels angry,
short-changed, cheated,
everybody is despondent,
disillusioned)

I welcomed shots of
peace, tattered shards of
happiness.

(don't get me wrong,
there is such a thing as cockeyed optimism
that overlooks all
basic problems just for
the sake of
itself —
this is a shield and a
sickness.)

The knife got near my
throat again,
I almost turned on the
gas
again
but when the good
moments arrived
again
I didn't fight them off
like an alley
adversary.
I let them take me,
I luxuriated in them,
I bade them welcome
home.
I even looked into
the mirror
once having thought
myself to be
ugly,
I now liked what
I saw, almost
handsome, yes,
a bit ripped and
ragged,
scares, lumps,
odd turns,
but all in all,
not too bad,
almost handsome,
better at least than
some of those movie
star faces
like the cheeks of
a baby's
butt.

and finally I discovered
real feelings of
others,
unheralded,
like lately,
like this morning,
as I was leaving,
for the track,
I saw my wife in bed,
just the
shape of
her head there
so still,
I ached for her life,
just being there
under the
covers.

I kissed her in the,
forehead,
got down the stairway,
got outside,
got into my marvelous
car,
fixed the seatbelt,
backed out the
drive.
feeling warm to
the fingertips,
down to my
foot on the gas
pedal,
I entered the world
once
more,
drove down the
hill
past the houses
full and empty
of
people,
I saw the mailman,
honked,
he waved
back
at me.

The Golden Afternoon

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

I love the movie "Alice in Wonderland", it's one of my favorites. The title for this painting comes from one of the songs Alice sings, called "The Golden Afternoon".
Alice:
You can learn a lot of things from the flowers
For especially in the month of June
There's a wealth of happiness and romance
All in the golden afternoon

Yes, that sounds all dandy and carefree, but there is a lot of depth to the story of Alice in Wonderland. I can really relate to Alice's struggles with the importance and instability of personal identity. She is constantly ordered to identify herself by the creatures she meets, but she herself has doubts about her identity as well. This concept of "finding yourself" is intriguing to me. It is one of my goals this year to put together a series of paintings based the themes explored in Alice in Wonderland of identity, curiosity, growing up and achieving social position. This painting is a step in that direction.

Follow Me Home

12" x 12"
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas

"Just living is not enough," said the little bird, "One must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower." Hans Christian Anderson

I enjoyed adding birds to my poppy "surrealscape". I think they will be making some repeat appearances.

Fortune's Flowers

16" x 20" x 1.5"
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Gallery-Wrapped Canvas

This painting got its name because tucked inside its many layers and rich texture are a bunch of fortunes I have been saving up from Chinese take-out meals gone by. I love opening up my fortune cookie after eating Chinese; it's a ritual that's almost as good as the meal itself. I hate to throw them away, so I've been collecting them in the studio with the hopes that inspiration would strike, and lo and behold, it did.

My friend Lara saw this painting and commented, "Gina, I think it's so cool how your work went from so brooding to so joyful as you get further along in your pregnancy (maybe a coincidence, but I am all about this fetus-as-muse theory!)." I totally agree with her. As the prognosis for my son gets more and more positive, so does the tone of my artwork. Even though it's hard to walk these days, moving around comfortably is a joke and my clothes don't fit, I am so overjoyed that in a few weeks we will get to take our son home from the hospital that I want to paint flowers for everyone!