Tippy-Toe Prayer

This is the painting I have been working on for the last couple of weeks - Mother With Sturdy Shoes: Tippy-Toe Prayer
I finished it just this morning. I'm having some trouble getting the colours right when I post photos; this painting is actually quite brilliant (I am of course referring to the colours... but now that I've thought about it, perhaps it IS brilliant in every sense of the word - ah... the artist's ego can be a frightening thing).

Goal: 20 paintings

I'll be in the studio all day today to finish a painting I started a couple of weeks ago and to begin another before the week is out. My goal is to have 20 works ready for my June show, and I'll be dedicating a lot of time to the studio these next 2 months to achieve that goal. Usually I spend a couple of months thinking about my next painting and then spend at about a month creating it. To achieve my 20 work goal, I'll have to produce a work a week- thank goodness I have several sketches I created last summer and ideas about those images have been bouncing around inside my head ever since, so the usual 2 month thinking period is already covered.

Wish me luck, energy, and continued inspiration!

School Teacher With Sturdy Shoes

Hot off my easel - here she is: School Teacher With Sturdy Shoes.

To view more works from my With Sturdy Shoes series, please Google curator.ca.

Winged Mother With Sturdy Shoes

This is the original Winged Mother With Sturdy Shoes - the inspiration for all the rest. I exhibited her at the Tsawwassen Art Centre in 2004 in a group exhibition entitled "Domestica". I may exhibit her again in October of this year at Place des Arts in Coquitlam in a show entitled "Memory and Narrative" that I'm participating in with Leap Visual Artists, a collective of women artists I've been showing with for 7 years.

A few days away from the studio...

I have been looking at and test driving cars these past 3 days - looking for something that can fit at least 20 medium-sized canvases on edge. It's frustrating to have to make several trips to a far away gallery for a show, when I could be using that time creating more work, eating chocolates, or visiting with friends. It's been a challenge to find something that fits my criteria: built in this century, fully loaded with leather interior, looks good (and me too, when I'm driving it), and won't break our pocketbook to the extent that we'll have to drink only the cheapest of wines when we're cruising the Midi canal this fall. I may have found just the vehicle, although me looking good in it may not quite meet my criteria - but that may not be the car's fault, but rather have something to do with aging, the way my clothes seem to be getting smaller, and the relentless forces of gravity.

I have two canvases nearing completion in the studio, and, if I get a move-on, I should have one ready for posting by the end of this week. Now that you know something about the symbolism I use, imagine what School Teacher With Sturdy Shoes may look like, and check back at the end of the week to see if you were close.

Daughter/Mother With Sturdy Shoes: Life Cyle, acrylic on exhibition canvas, 30" x 24"

Here's my latest With Sturdy Shoes work - hot off the easel. The figure's hair forms seven robins on each side of her head, representing all the days of her past and all the days of her future. It's difficult to see in such a small picture, but she is surrounded by berries that begin as tiny, green, and unripe, and gradually change to yellow, orange, red, sienna, and finally to brown - an example of the circle of life. In her arms she holds her mother and her child - the negative space around them forms a womb and their heads also read as ovaries - again, symbols of the cyclical nature/pattern of life.

Paintings a-go-go

I'm currently working on two 30" x 24" paintings along with a triptych consisting of three 10" x 8" canvases - all of them for my With Sturdy Shoes series. Hopefully I'll have an image ready for posting by the end of the week.

Back to the studio

The bids for Winged Woman did not meet the reserve price I had set, so she stays in my collection and will be exhibited in June with my other "Sturdy Shoes" works at the Tsawwassen Art Centre. I'll be giving a donation to the Breast Cancer Foundation in an amount equal to 25% of the highest bid when I pick her up from DeDutch later this week.

In the meantime, it's back to the studio I go to work on the next couple of paintings I've sketched for this series.