Description
Early in 2010 I was in an art store and saw sheets of heavy watercolor paper that were twice as large as I’d seen before. I had been under the impression that if I wanted to paint larger than 30″x40″ I had to go to roll paper, which is much thinner and a challenge to paint on. I got so excited, I bought all 5 sheets they had in stock. I’ve been wanting to paint big for a while and now I was equipped! Then BJ (our doggy) died and the energy was out of my sails for “going big.” The summer of 2011 the call came back. At some point I had settled upon this image as one of those that could take being blown up so drastically. Not every image can. There is a lot of detail in this one that would have made it challenging to paint small, in fact. I started on it during our Tahoe trip at the end of July after finishing Faith (also in the Rose Gallery). As the days marched on, it seemed that the painting and the amount of work left to do actually grew! The last week I had to really focus and work hard, with the Tiburon festival the weekend before, it was a challenge to keep sourcing the energy. All the while, I was wondering what the heck I was going to name this big piece. Then one morning, really early, I was listening to a playlist of songs on my iPod, my comfy headset making gorgeous sound and k.d. lang’s incredibly emotional version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah started playing. The lyrics refer to a “broken hallelujah” and the title dropped out of the music. “Hallelujah” – praise God, yes! I am so fed by color, light, astonishing beauty, even and especially amidst scratches, teary water drips and brokenness. The process of naming these paintings – especially the more recent florals – is truly led by the spirit – well, actually all of life is really – I just have to remember it.
August 2011
