Leonore Carrington is dead

She was just 20 years old when she eloped to Paris with Max Ernst, who left a wife for her. The following year, 1937, the Nazi's arrested Max. Fearing for her life, Leonora escaped France to Spain, but then she suffered several mental breakdowns and medically administered experimental drug horrors. Max eventually escaped the Nazi's with the help of Peggy Guggenheim (whom he then married).
Leonora was an accomplished surrealist painter. This painting is a parody of a portrait by Leonora of her Max. I like it for many reasons. When I painted it, I had no idea Leonora was dead.

Uprooted from the garden of love

Summer painting!
This is about challenges, change, choices, and travel...
acrylic on wood panel
15 x 22 inches
$500

Persephone's bath and Proserpina's garden

Enjoying the flowers of my lover.
Two paintings- one 16 x 6 inches and the other 12 x 10.25 inches

Some musings on my son's contribution to my art

Not only are my sons inspiration, but they have given me the material, literally, to paint on.
Here- eaglet, Mother bear and son, bird rookery, and Bald eagle totem are all painted on paper made from my son's over worn kahki pants, bits of maps, and small inclusions.

I think she is finished...

having conquered the stag. No idea what to call this painting. Taking suggestions.

some words...

There is this wonderful Los Angeles times newspaper headline: "And who is she this time?"

Before words...

Because the internet was down I didn't get sucked into my emails and I was able to paint first thing in the morning... painted from 7 a.m. to 1:30 pm!

Deer Diary

Still confused... the idea for this painting is so illusive now... when I try to pin it down it moves away from me. Constantly I have to ask myself , "what am I trying to share?" It's intensely personal...A recurrent yet fleeting dream. Mostly when I see the stag he is behind me, in the corner of my eye. So to look at him head on is a bit strange. Not sure I want it so visible... is that better? Turning the stag into a couch?

a new painting

is in the works. You can see the stumbling and the inspiration. Still have layers of maps to add. After all she looks a little lost.

Flowers in memory

After making it through the winter I was surprised by the sadness that spring brought when I smelled the flowers I had planted for my husband. This is a large painting with maps and layers... acrylic on wood, 24 x 32 inches

I think she is done

It was so easy. I do not have a title for her...
any ideas?

Filling in the landscape

What is she looking at?

Pencil and charcoal on newsprint paper.

THE EARLY YEARS

In one we had the whole world in front of us... and 5 years later we had our homestead.

Nests in the past

I love these two paintings... even though they were painted in times of struggle. I felt very alone building the nest... even though my husband worked the farm and was managing the addition onto the house, I was often alone. It felt as though I had really gone out on a limb being a wife and mother.  The long narrow painting was about Time and the midnight care of my son that probably connected me to other mothers across the globe. I consoled myself with the thought that while I was up nursing, rocking, and living without sleep, other women were in their own houses doing it too. I collaged individual panels of house shaped wood panels so that we would really be connected.

nest within barbed wire

I did this in the late 1980's. It is three panels hinged together in the back with copper tabs. I was trying to convince my husband that having a child would be good for us. i remember wandering across the farm past the edges of the fields and finding nests in the crooks of old tires, in barbed wire, thorned hedges and junk piles. I knew you could build a thing out of beauty even if it were a trash site. I think that is what I am best at- Making something beautiful out of something ugly. In fact, I have rarely seen anything ugly...
Angry is ugly. It is hard to look anger in the face and keep my strength.

SOLD my soul

This is heading to California! I have a good stable following of women from all over California!
Got accepted, after a submission process, to be part of the Infusion gallery in LA, and for a moment it was SO EXCITING. Then I read the fine print and realized I had to pay a fee and it was going to cost me money to exhibit there.... so BOO HOO.

This is called interior tropical Paradise... 6 x 6 paint and collage on panel, $150.

Map eyes on road

9 x 9 collage and paint on panel.
A wintry year.
Snow, road, electric wires, eyes, maps, a lake...
hibernation, movement, connection, vision, sacrifice.

Sisters in field

6 x 6 inches
My baby sister has always inspired me to be a better person...
Everyone should have a person who believes in them- Believes they are even better than they really are. It makes you strive for excellence. It gives the world hope.

Haitian Goddesses in headlines

The love of my early years was encapsulated by the generosity women who came to watch over me when I lived in Port-au-Prince and Deschapels. To this day I love the sound of the rooster crow at dawn and the memories of the hills coming alive with song. Everyday was perfect.
9 x 9 inxes, paint and text from Los Angeles Times