Out on a Limb

It is rare that I work without a reference photo or sketch but this is one of those pieces that is coming from within. I started it in the early spring, took a different direction and put it back in the storage rack. Pulled it out today and put it on the easel. It was definitely not the painting that I thought I would work on today. Sat on the couch and looked at it and looked at it. Read from Anne Carson, Charles Olson and looked at Kahlil Gibran's paintings as well as photos of the Omo tribe. Thought about my recent trip to California, my Persephone ptg for the Collective Egg project, my last year of living alone, separated from my husband and daughters...and began to paint. This is the result so far. All I have just described is within this painting, all the sorrows and joys, all the beauty and ugliness. I have no words for these things, only images, movement and paint. I was able to translate the ideas of my mind into body movement which became the strokes of paint. This is not a painting about my skill as an artist but a painting that takes me out on a limb and pushes me to the edge of my limits. I am frightened and vulnerable out here but oh so alive!

Redwood Reverie

Redwood Reverie

Centuries soar up vertical trunks,
rivers of wisdom run through veins.
Even fallen ones emanate a life force
from root balls spun into rosettes
revealing hidden galaxies.
Roots that tapped the ground for rhythms
are torn from earth's breast
and encounter atmosphere.
Air rushes upward
towards cathedral's canopy
where needles spray into open sky,
shattering the sun's rays into a
cascade of splintered light.
Fractured sparkles are
caught by shadow nets
casting intricate patterns
across forest floor.
Columns form a temple
reverberating with silence.
Fusing forms become,
while death decays
into a darkness
of terrifying beauty.
Energy vortex
quietly cleaves
open awareness
with penetrating
presence.