Description
Another waterlily from the south side of Kauai, but not just another painting! When I took the photo that inspired this painting, I was drenched – out for a morning walk, it just poured rain. And then, as it does in the tropics, the clouds broke up, letting the sunlight make everything postively sparkle! A perfect time to be out with my camera! I was captivated by the water drops and small puddles all over this lily and the way its reflection is so clear – drops and all in the pond. I didn’t really plan on making this one so large. But now that I’ve painted it, I cannot imagine painting it smaller – all the detail would have been impossible! I had torn a jumbo sheet to 40″ square and had planned to paint cherry blossoms. But the arc passed on that idea. In July I was thinking it was time to dive into another large piece and went looking for images for this big square. I projected a few images really big on the wall in one of my Friday groups and they all agreed this was the one. In the middle of painting it, I was working on the shadow-y reflection of the lily and I had a contentious conversation with someone close to me. All stirred up from it, I sat back down and asked myself how I was to make art from that place. And it hit me – the shadow is part of this piece, it’s part of relationship, of each of us, of life in this universe. This painting speaks to me of wholeness, of including it all, the bright, sun-lit part that’s easy to embrace, as well as the dark stuff. In the process of painting, I was listening to Deepak Chopra talk about the shadow. He said just this. There is no defeating the shadow – only consciousness can allow us to be one step ahead of it so that we don’t operate from it. I’ve been challenging myself to name these paintings with a single word. My iTunes playlist gave it to me again. John Lennon’s Imagine played and I knew. I’m a dreamer and and an eternal optimist. One day we all will live as one – and it will be by ending our battles with the shadow in all its forms. “Imagine” really helped me hold my vision for this piece. There was still plenty to paint and I was anxious about getting it done in time for the Sausalito festival. All those water drops! All that detail! Would I ever get it done? I kept picturing it in my mind’s eye all finished. And here it is, shadow and all.
August 2013
