Stay Golden

CONFESSION: Sparkly things have been distracting me. I’m feeling as if the Golden Girls have met Château de Versailles . . . but on paper.

I’m even buying frames in gold?!?! I used to loathe gold and now, I’m finding the more sparkle the better.

Today is my birthday and I’m 44. I’m wondering if I’m attracted to the glitter shimmer to make up for the “diminishing” that middle age brings in. I now need reading glasses- especially in the mornings and evenings, back pain is a new companion of mine and well, those younger people are just so plugged in. How do they even have all the opinions they do about the planet? The world, coffee, sustainable clothing and politics??? I can’t keep up. But I want to and I’m glad they are here. They care deeply about meaningful things and know how to have a good conversation.

I guess i’m thinking about these things because this year I noticed that I am too old for certain art calls. And I had four consecutive weeks where I really could do very little due to pain. So the fact is, I’m in a new season. What am I going to do with it?

Try to embrace and stay golden, I suppose. Oh, and the yoga for the back.

Picture of an Educator

Six years ago, I left the classroom. A year and a half ago I returned. It is a profession which keeps me connected to people, yet also allows me the luxury of time for family.

But it is not easy work

Recently, I read The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. In the novel, the portrait takes on the aging and sins of the man. And I thought about the strength that educators show in the midst of stress. Not only theirs but also that of the students. Does the outside depict the reality?

To me, the American Robin symbolizes spring, new beginnings, children playing and hope. This image to me captures a great unsettling I feel at the moment. School shootings are becoming normal, low pay is an insult to the profession and the hours are long. In what profession does one begin their day manning a metal detector shortly before entering a classroom to shape hearts and educate minds?

So I painted all the words I feel but cannot say. Recognizing that bleeding heart conversations are damask political curtains we hang.

What Happens to Birds During Hurricanes?

“He in his madness prays for storms, and dreams that storms will bring him peace”
― Mikhail Lermontov

The photo of this bird was shared in a bird group I followed on Facebook. It was captured by someone after a recent hurricane hit the East Coast. And it immediately struck me. What does happen to birds in these storms? Where DO they go? How do they find shelter if caught in the midst of one? Why did this one not escape it?

I asked the photographer if I might use her image as a reference for a painting. She granted permission and since then, I have been immersed in the intricacies of this one's composition.

It captures so much to me.

That there is grace and beauty in dying. And yet confusion as to how a death can look so peaceful with a ballerina like pose. It doesn't seem polite.

It swells in me the grief cycle. Pirouettes and all.

*A sincere and special thank you to Marylee Newmann for permission to use her photograph that captured such a striking and moving moment as a reference image.

Marauder

"Gentrification is painted alternately as a destroyer of neighborhoods or a savior of cities," says Lance Freeman in a Washington Post Article from 2016.

I have from the sidelines observed this controversial tension in my previous work. Serving artists but also promoting development. I don't have answers.

Only more questions.

Is gentrification the urban version of a food chain?

Producers and consumers: ALL are integral parts of the circle of a city's life. Can one exist without the other?