Big Flower

No, I was not killed in a tragic accident, nor did I lose interest in my blog. I have simply been so busy with doings surrounding the gallery that I had no time to think about anything else. Doings surrounding the gallery are not interesting and you do not want to hear about them. Finally, today, I began this painting of another one of Elizabeth's sculptures. We have decided to continue this project with the idea of eventually putting an exhibit together. I think it's a "can't lose" idea, but even if it isn't, I love painting her work. I took many photographs of this one, which is a figure about twenty-five inches high looking at a large single flower on a heavy stalk. My plan is to do several paintings of this same piece. It could fit into our Demeter and Persephone show, too, if we become desperate for work as time grows short.

Karen spent the week-end with me, which was actually what precipitated the painting spree. She and Lisa and I spent Saturday together at our individual tasks in my studio. I admired what both of them did as I struggled with my own work. I'm pleased with what I did now, though. I have no idea what it will be like in the end. No doubt it will go through many metamorphoses. That's the fun of having no real product in mind when you start.

It isn't that I have nothing to talk about but painting, or that I am doing nothing else. It is only that when I try to write after such a long absense the thoughts and ideas press and crowd against one another until none of them can get out. They die like dancers trying to escape a nightclub fire. Art is all that remains orgainized and constant. Maybe that's why it appeals to so many crazy people, or so many crazy people are artists. It is one place where certain things can be controled, where rules apply, where endless manipulation is possible. The artist is all powerful, the creator and the destroyer. The artist is allowed. The artist is made room for. The artist is special.

Anyway, I will make sure to stay with it more faithfully, to avoid the bottleneck, to keep things exiting in a smooth and steady line, quietly children don't rush......