Behind the Curtain

Behind the Curtain

Oil on Wood

12"X12"

After a whirlwind trip to the East coast, I am back in the studio but just barely. There are way too many pieces of paper piled up here and there listing things that need doing. And all I want to do is paint. And walk the dog and laugh with friends, and embrace my family, and read a good book, and take in the fresh spring air.
Life is for living. That's the bottom line.

The Things We Save - Grannie's Crystal Candy Dish

The Things We Save - Grannie's Crystal Candy Dish

Oil on Masonite

8"X10"

 Esteban Salas, Cuban Baroque Music of the 18th Century is on full blast. The Exaudi Choir of Cuba sounds like attributes of my grandmother's crystal. Clear, precise, sharp, old world, and stirring to the soul. 

The Things We Save - Grannie's Crystal - Dessert Plate

The Things We Save - Grannie's Crystal - Dessert Plate

Oil on Masonite

8"X10"

In March of 2009 I wrote this:

"Grannie spirited her prize possessions out of Germany at the zero hour in 1939. They are in my hands now, and I think I will memorialize her by painting them, one by one."

I made 4 paintings and never finished the project. Today I start again.

Here are links to the previous paintings:

Grannie's Wine Glass

Grannie's Cream Pitcher

Grannie's Glass, Half Full

Grannie's Sugar Bowl

Spring Comes to Sausalito - Painting

Spring Comes to Sausalito

Oil on Wood

12"X12"

Everything on my street is bursting into bloom. My neighbor's victorian gem has been lovingly restored and its old fig tree is showing signs of life. Our old dogwood is loaded with bright white flowers and the wisteria is full of buds. Forget-me-nots, my grandmother's favorite flower, have made a light blue carpet outside my studio window. And as if these weren't enough signs that Spring is in the air, last night our friend's baby came into the world. Welcome Sonia. New Life. There is nothing more hopeful than that. 

Art Show - Falkirk

Art Show

Oil on Wood

8"X6"

Art imitates Art imitates Life. Or, woman admires "Man Admiring Superman" at the Falkirk's Spring Annual Juried Exhibition.

Bouquets to Art - De Young Museum

Bouquets to Art

Oil on Wood

10"X10"

Last night at the de Young Museum a friend and I and a lot of other people of all ages wandered around taking in "Bouquets to Art 2013" a yearly show of flower arrangements inspired by works of art we've seen many times before. Flowers imitating art, imitating flowers. Fun, fresh, lively, a sure sign that Spring is here. And a chance to see old favorites in a new light. 

The painting, "November in Nevada" by Maynard Dixon never held my attention until I saw it in relation to this simple selection of delicate flowers, tall and short, and parted as if blown by the breeze. Now it joins the long list of favorites that will be visited again long after the flowers have left, and the memory of their presence swallowed up by Dixon's painting for the rest of time.

The Things We Save - Blue Coat - Painting

The Things We Save - Blue Coat

Oil on Masonite

10"X8"

Along with the sailor dress, my friend's mother saved this blue wool coat. Also beautifully preserved for 50 years, now it is having a new life as the subject of a painting. Not only that, but the whole episode has sent me on an investigation of the past, and holding on to things, and the meaning of things, and the fragility of life, and the passage of time, and missing my past, and oh so many memories. The present is the sum total of all of that, which might be why Life seems so full and precious at the moment. Surely my friend's mother had no idea that hanging on to her daughter's wardrobe would have meaning  to any of us out here. But there you go. Ripples make ripples make waves. What we do matters beyond our wildest dreams.