Thursday, December 17, 2015

Art of the Spirit ends Saturday


The Art of the Spirit: Epiphany show continues until the end of this week at O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, so please remind any friends/family who have not yet seen the show to come visit before this Saturday at 2:00 pm!

Last days for Art of the Spirit


The Art of the Spirit: Epiphany show continues until the end of this week at O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, so please remind any friends/family who have not yet seen the show to come visit before this Saturday at 2:00 pm!

The Annunciation

Tchaikovsky is said to have disliked some of his most notable works.  I think this speaks to  the notion of artist  not so much a creator than a conduit.  Likewise in my piece, The Annunciation, I have felt more a conduit than creator.  In the two years since I began work on it I have mostly followed clues offered by an evolving image. Truthfully, I am somewhat embarrassed by this naked expression of  purity.  Not so much by the nakedness as by the purity.  Ultimately, it is about motherhood.  Which makes chronological sense to me personally because my mother died a little more than two years ago and my unconscious mind has been busy reconciling our relationship.

The fruits of artwork are often divided between what is revealed to the artist and what is expressed to the viewers.  Revelations are most meaningful for the artist in terms of self elucidation and reconciliation with one’s true self.  For us to move forward we must first know where we are and to acknowledge from whence we came. So I return to my mother.  A Lutheran at birth she converted to Episcopalian when married. We were raised in that church.  However the truth is never that simple.  My siblings and I all acknowledge a chaste and saintly nanny as the one who nurtured us as our mother played golf.  Did I mention reconciliation?  

Life cannot be understood without an appreciation if not acceptance of mystery. At the annunciation the Angel Gabriel communicates a biological impossibility to the Virgin Mary.  In nearly all the paintings called Annunciation the depiction is of  two entities, one communicating the other listening. As you can see, my painting contains only one figure. Hopefully, she  is giving a message to a viewer. This work aspires to becomes a dialog - perhaps a sacred dialog.  The two entities become the viewer and the viewed.