Ins and Outs

I haven't been "in" this blog space lately. I've been too distracted by working on two paintings. One is 5' by 3' and is a large abstract/cartoon bouquet of life that seems to attract the attention of the miniature people who run past my studio door every day. There is nothing more sweet than strange 4 or 5-year-olds stopping in their active-leg tracks to stare at my painting and gasp out, "That's so pretty!" Mind you, it's NOT a pretty painting to the eyes of the adults, but those little minds, they totally rock with it's off the wall naive energy.

The other painting is about half that size and within its imagery are large enveloping wings and a lot of gold light. This one attracts the more exotic larger people who run past my studio door. Two days ago an art therapist stopped to gaze for a bit. He commented that in his work the clients often didn't know what they were painting about, but he could lead them towards defining reasons behind why they had created the symbols on their art. I invited him to interpret my painting, but he just gazed at it quietly. A second viewer said he didn't know if it was a positive or a negative painting since parts of it felt like Hell. Is it possible to paint Hell into a positive message? Interesting question.