When I was getting my Masters degree in Fredonia, NY, just outside Buffalo, I waitressed and sold my paintings to pay the bills. I had a lot of my works in pubs for sale and did pretty good for a while. Every one of them has a story to me just like a fond memory or a favorite tattoo. While bartending for this posh historic 1700’s Hotel where I actually had to wear a tux every night in the lounge with a beautiful mahogany bar, I met a rich fellow that had a hunting room and we got to talking about art. I told him where my paintings were hanging in town and he commissioned me to paint him a picture of wild ducks for his hunter green trophy room. Two weeks later I deliver the painting to his Mc-Mansion and see his really tripped out hunting room. He pays me $200 in cash for the painting, offers me a joint for which I pass and I start heading out. I walked out the door and got this weird tingly feeling as I walked to my car. I pulled out of the driveway and made it to the light at the end of the block when about a zillion SWAT cars and a police helicopter just storm the place and I watch it all in the rearview mirror as my art lover gets hauled out and thrown down on the front steps of his place. The papers next day said it was a huge mega drug bust that had been planned for a while. God, can you imagine that? I have a lot of odd stories like that of various travels …Lord the stories I could tell of some very interesting people you meet in the world. Mercy!
Picture #1 - Cindy in nothing but her Halston Perfume. This was an ad that came out that Cindy Crawford did for the Halston Perfume line circa 1980’s at the height of her career. That Pepsi commercial with the little boys watching her down a Pepsi on a dusty road to the tune of “Just one look” was all the rage. I liked the shading of the bone structure in her collarbone and her knee in this.
Picture #2 – Life in Pottery – This is representative of some of the Native American themed paintings I’ve done. I sold a lot of my young Indian maiden portraits at a business I owned called, “Two Eagles Horse and Wolf” in 2000. This painting is representative of the harsh terrain of life’s up’s and down’s as symbolized by the mountains. On a table of raw lumber sits 4 pots that represent 4 stages of my life. The yellow pot is the warm phase of childhood and youth; golden with promise. The white pureness of the wedding jar is next followed by the heart shaped bottle that has the words, “El Corazone” (Spanish for “the heart”) written in the glass and lastly the plump pregnant vessel of Motherhood rich with it’s natural wisdom and strength. Notice that the eagle feathers are in the burgundy wine pot of the heart; the soul. I was in my late 20’s and putting the feathers in that pot was used to represent the phase I was in at the time.
Picture #2 – Life in Pottery – This is representative of some of the Native American themed paintings I’ve done. I sold a lot of my young Indian maiden portraits at a business I owned called, “Two Eagles Horse and Wolf” in 2000. This painting is representative of the harsh terrain of life’s up’s and down’s as symbolized by the mountains. On a table of raw lumber sits 4 pots that represent 4 stages of my life. The yellow pot is the warm phase of childhood and youth; golden with promise. The white pureness of the wedding jar is next followed by the heart shaped bottle that has the words, “El Corazone” (Spanish for “the heart”) written in the glass and lastly the plump pregnant vessel of Motherhood rich with it’s natural wisdom and strength. Notice that the eagle feathers are in the burgundy wine pot of the heart; the soul. I was in my late 20’s and putting the feathers in that pot was used to represent the phase I was in at the time.
Picture #3 – Looking up from the ocean floor. This painting was the first one that I started writing secret messages in the paint that can only be detected if you really study it. It is the view you see looking up from the ocean floor towards the sunlight shining down through the frothy waves. I was living in North Palm Beach, Florida in my 20’s and every day was a boating day. I loved snorkeling and everyone had a boat party on a daily basis since I lived at a Marina behind a fabulous little bar off US 1 called “the Brass Ring”. They had this brass ring that hung from a string in the ceiling. The trick was to swing it at a hooked nail on the wall and see if you can make it catch. I spent some time in that place watching the ocean and lovin’ Killians Red on tap, laughing at the tourists and being a parrothead. Snorkeling, living the singles life and being a bum. So at this little establishment I would sit and meet some interesting people from time to time. I loved seeing people struggle at the brass ring game over and over never getting close to hooking it. When they tired of the impossible-to-win game and sat back down at their table I’d take my Killians and slink on over in my tanned skin, ragged lockes and bohemian skirt and in one minute hook it 7 times in a row without skipping a beat. I’d suck down the beer in several swallows listening to them mutter over my unbelievable success, and then turn, wink at them and leave the pub. Smooth as butter. Snapshot moment in time of my life there. So this painting represents that careless freedom I had in exploring that time I spent in Florida.
Picture #4 – Ribbon through time. This one has specks of glass sprinkled into the blue starry night that this peachy ribbon floats effortlessly through. I’ve had a few offers to sell it but I can’t part with it.
Picture #5 – Shattered. This is one of a few paintings I started doing that I termed, “Emotion paintings”. Like if you could take an emotion, say for instance, “sadness” and tried to paint it – what would it look like? This one is raw anger, bloody, and filled with shards of glass making you keep your distance… it is pain…it is rejection and rage…. betrayal and isolation… I painted it after being left at the Altar by Fiancé #2.
Picture #6 – Thunderstorm. Love this one. I always lose an earring so I took all the remaining earrings and put them in this painting. The one in the middle is the eye of the tornado, the upper left is crackling lightening, the bottom left is a canyon that the raging river on the lower left flows to. In the upper right are clouds and rain. I love thunderstorms and the rain in general. It’s electric nature fascinates me and water pouring down is a symbolical cleansing of the soul; a renewal.
Picture #7 – Two Ships passing in the night. This is my front window. I cut large plates of stained glass and set it in the window framework. It feels to me like an aerial view of two ships passing in the night--- kinda’ also reminds me of the aerial view of the two battlestar ships just missing hitting one another in the original Star Wars. Yes, I’m a huge fan of the films… what can I say.
Picture #8 – Folded Rag Rug. This one is actually one of those colorful woven rugs made of rags that everyone has had at one point in their lives at the entrance to the back door. It represents the woven strands of one’s life – there are hi’s and low’s, some dark periods, lighter/colorful sections, snags and worn areas but soft and comforting.
So that’s just a little sample of some of the paintings I’ve done. As I’m sure everyone does, I too have a favorite one. It hangs in my entranceway and has a secret message written on the back for someone I had not yet met …. but that’s another story.
No comments:
Post a Comment