Peace

Original Sold

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This painting is a direct result of life in a pandemic. 

In the early months of 2020 the parking lots at the Marin watershed, where we hike most weekends were closed.  If we wanted to keep doing so, we had to walk or bike in. 

Joe and I took turns giving each other rides up to the trails.  A few times I decided to hike all the way home, which meant that I walked through neighborhoods that I don’t otherwise visit – especially not on foot.  Walks in Beauty are meant to be actually walks. Being ambushed by beauty is much more likely with our feet on the ground.

One blue-sky day in April – the world was singing of spring everywhere – I was walking back home from the watershed  when I was gobsmacked by the largest single tea rose bush ever!  It was growing behind a six foot fence at the upper end of a driveway; there was more bush above the fence rail than below, and it spanned the width of two cars. I mean huge!

And… it was a Peace rose.  I adore Peace roses.  Their delicate lavender-pink-edged, golden yellow petals, stately with their pointed folds, fat buds, and glossy leaves – such a classy rose – and one with a remarkable origin and history.   

iPhone in hand and up on my tippy toes, I took as many photos of the lower flowers I could reach, lit up in the mid-morning light.

Then came an email… a lovely person had seen my work in the open studios guide and had been following me for a number of years.  It was time to find a piece of my work for over her fireplace.  She sent me photos of the other art in the room and the space she was looking to fill.  With all of that input, I could SO see a horizontal painting of these yellow Peace roses.  We talked and emailed back and forth as I collaged something together for her in Photoshop.  She liked the concept and the result I’d come up with. So, I got busy painting. 

I sent photos of the painting in progress and she returned appreciation and encouragement.   Once it was done we were both excited for her to take it home and see how it looked in place. 

But, it wasn’t right.  It was too much.  My work sometimes is.  It carried a lot of energy and overwhelmed the space.  Ok… so now what?  Well, I’d have to find something else to paint for her – and, another home for this painting. 

Part of me was quite disappointed.  All that energy, work and expectancy. But I’ve long since known that there are no guarantees with how it goes with art – AND that I am not at all in charge of where my art goes, nor to whom.

There is a line in the movie “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” that the Dev Patel character says often.  “Everything will be alright in the end, so if it is not alright it is not the end.” I have adopted this philosophy for my life – at least whenever I can remember to!  If I take a broad enough view, it’s never failed me.

It turns out the end came pretty quickly and easily.  I have a dear friend, Randi.  Ours is my longest-standing friendship – we were suite-mates in the El Conquistador Dorm at San Diego State in 1980.

Randi and I had recently begun regular conversations about my work and life.  She is an incredibly successful person and maybe the most gifted listener I know. What she hears between the lines and what she retains astonishes me.  The current incarnation of her work is executive coaching. And I was benefitting from her very special attention – focused in on me.

Once Randi discovered that the Peace rose painting didn’t work and was thus available, she decided it was the right thing for her home-office.   Her beautiful mother Barbara, who is no longer alive, loved yellow roses.  And, as I considered the composition I came up with, rather than carrying the spirit of a pair of lovers – (they would be more intertwined),  this painting represented friendship – or a coach/client relationship.  So off to its new home in New Jersey it went.

Here’s the rest of the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel wisdom: “The only real failure is the failure to try, and the measure of success is how we cope with disappointment.  Remember you are everything, or you are nothing.” 

The name of this painting was easy.  Besides it being the storied variety of this elegant rose, it’s a reminder of the state we can find our way to, or back to, even in the face of disappointment.  Because there is no question in my mind or heart – we are most certainly everything.  Every one of us.

I wish you Peace.

20”x40” – May-June 2020 – Watercolor on Paper