Rising Flames

This piece is one of those works that speaks to me, for hours on end actually, I spend more time listening to what it has to say than actually painting it. Is she ascending or falling? floating or resting? sacrifice or crucifixion? Then there is the water (river) and fire that seem to want to reconcile with each other. I just sit and listen as the story unfolds slowly. I worked on finishing and starting several landscape pieces today as I worked intermittently on this one. Adding and taking away, changing colours, what to let go? and what to keep? What does this figure have to say? how does she relate to our inner psyche? the collective soul of the earth? Is she archetypal in energy or personal? She asks so many questions of me that I must rest when I leave her presence.