Friday, April 15, 2011

A real winner.....

This piece will be one of many amazing art works that will be available at the St. Louis Artist's Guild's Collector's Choice event. The opening party and chance to see all the works is on May 20 and the  bidding is on June 12. The ticket buys you a chance at one of the paintings and a great dinner as well as two great parties. If you are in St. Louis it is worth grabbing a ticket or two! This one was actually inspired by a trio of much smaller pieces I did some time ago. I decided not to part with them....but began a new series, which I am loving! I just finished another one yesterday and have a third background already done. I love these colors and shapes.there is always a sense of mystery about what lies beneath us. I actually worked as an archaeologist back in Texas and the entire concept of these lost secrets right below our everyday lives is enchanting to me. Trees seem to know it all. they are so much older than we are in some places and their very roots are tangled in those ancient mysteries. What tales they could tell, if we could only hear them? Sometimes when I am sitting beneath the trees in my backyard and the wind is just strong enough to set the leaves to whispering...especially in the Spring when a few blossoms can join in the conversation, I think I can here those stories. I try very hard to listen. It helps a great deal if you take off your shoes and wiggle your bare toes into the grass a bit..getting directly into the soil is even better. You can hear everything better and even colors and shapes seem brighter, stronger...even the wind. So these fine whisperings and secrets turn into images in my head and out comes a painting. Who says there is no such thing as alchemy? A recent description of my work that went out on the Internet via Somerset magazine included the fact that I taught Alchemy. YES!!! By gosh, I do and if you don't believe me stop by one of my classes ! The Saturday classes start up this summer and Monday mornings are the same time every week. Alchemy lessons!
So when my love of playing in the dirt and listening for tree songs really takes a hold, I dive in hands first and garden. I just added a new flower bed and enlarged my veggie garden. Last week I planted morning glories, poppies, a real fairy garden (it said so on the package...right from the Missouri Botanical Garden) all edges in a border of fragrant thyme. I thought this one should look good and smell good. I planted an old bird cage and stand right in the middle so the morning glories could climb up and around and make a little sanctuary in the center. Last year I had a toad living under the tomatoes. Every single day my furry friend, Demi would stop by and sniff around for that little toad, but he had his tomato sanctuary, all safe and sound. So new growth inspired the piece above. You can see the bulb with its roots has a story in it, if we look closely enough. We may not be able to understand the particulars, but we can get the idea. Imagination isn't necessarily making stories up. It is being open enough to the stories around you in Earth, Sky and Wind. It is being able to stop all the outside noise in order to hear the inside story. OK, maybe it is taking dirt and turning it into gold..alchemy of nature to alchemy of paint. I love it!!!!
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