Sunday, July 12, 2009

work in progress...

I seem to be avoiding talking about this painting for some reason. When I show it to my husband and my family, I have trouble putting into words what it represents. But I tell them that it has a lot of symbolic meaning. When my five year old asks me what it is (after he has kindly said "That's a wonderful painting, Mom!) I usually tell him it's about me and my dad. I then kind of leave it at that. Of course, I don't think there's much more to say than that. I have been having some troubles with it...I saw the idea of the woman pretty clearly when I started. And the image of the face in the landscape was a happy accident that helped the whole idea take shape for me. Also, the "apple" was definitely something I wanted to put into it. Sort of referencing a painting I had done a long, long time ago for a friend. The apple represents thought...teacher....fate.... The face in the landscape represents my father. The figure represents me. Life being passed on, etc. I had a face on the figure, but the eyes were too harsh. And, as I am apt to do, I felt like more expression was achieved by no expression. Or in other words, the viewer gets to determine the mood of the face. For me I suppose it's somewhat melancholy. I meant for the landscape to be somewhat desert like, as that is where we all lived when my father passed away. Perhaps another way to explain this is that it is an interpretation of what memory looks like. I'm not sure what else I will do to it. This might be it...but I need to stare it awhile longer. There is nothing to be done (funny...that has been my working title as well "nothing to be done" after Waiting For Godot...) to the actual objects in the painting. It is a matter of deciding if the coloring needs to be different on the figure, how much I want to mess with it. The figure for a long time was blue, and the whole thing was too dark. So I painted it over with white....and then it was too stark, and too "patriotic" in coloring. Last night I added yellow ochre (my father's favorite paint color, btw) and some cadmium orange. Today I will have to ponder it awhile. It's funny how some painting's can really take over your thoughts, and others are just happy relaxing moments.

4 comments:

Alissa said...

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Julie Jordan Scott said...

What memory looks like... I appreciate that... and a thought I had is sometimes language can't communicate where paint communicates... it is something (the accompanying words) to eventually fall into....

carin.c said...

You might just be done with it. I like it as is... I think you finished it up visually and symbolically with the yellow ochre.

Leah said...

It's beautiful, Miriam!! I know what you mean about how powerful a painting can be, even if you can't quite put it into words. I don't feel like I can accurately describe most of my paintings. I think that's part of why we make art, because sometimes there just aren't words.