Rootedness
encaustic
8×8 inches
Another encaustic piece I created while I had my wax on the other day. I may change the title, but it is a word that resonates with me. I think I have always been plagued with a feeling of rootlessness and I always seem to be searching for some anchoring. That search is what spurred our move back to Chicago. But I’ve been finding myself missing Seattle often these days and daydreaming of our cute colorful cottage on Crockett Street with my wild cottage garden. I wonder how the roses fared during the heat wave they had this summer? Or whether the buds of my Camelia have started to show their shy faces?
I am finding that remaining in the present is what helps. My growing family and my art anchors me. Maybe one day we’ll go back. But for now, my home is here and in the present. The constant searching for “home” must be symptomatic of something else, something I have felt since childhood in Maryland. I always wanted to wander when I was a little girl.
your writing could have come from my own hand…i’ve begun to think of myself as a gypsy and have come to realize it is our connection to others (even across miles) and to what we see and experience that binds us together. Almost as if we are floating, rootless but still grounded. I guess what I’m saying is a sense of place doesn’t necessarily have to define who you are…it is just a part of who you are on your way to becoming…and there is freedom to grow and change.
First of all, I love the piece you’ve featured here today. Your work, as I think I’ve mentioned before, is an inspiration to me. As yet, not having done any encaustic work it will definitely have to happen for me as I am so intrigued with the finished works.
Your wanderlust – I don’t know where my came from but I have loved to move from house to house over the years. My spouse is the opposite so he trembles somewhat when I peruse the real estate section of the newspaper. I grew up in Oklahoma but spent a good deal of my adult life in the NY/CT area – always lusting for “another” house to beat my sense of restlessness in the mayhem of job and life in NY. Rambling on, we now live in Walla Walla, which as I read this a.m. you used to be in Seattle, I expect you know this corner of the state, at least by reputation. WW was a home for me as soon as I saw it. We’ve been here for 10 years and I have no desire to live anywhere else. NOW, I do have yearning for travel and am hoping for a second (teeny) space in Ballard, close to my sis, but WW feels like home. Living in the moment though, wherever one is, is so important. In my youthful years, I think always wanting to be somewhere else had a tendency to make time pass too quickly.
This is a beautiful piece, and a perfect title in my opinion. I was really drawn to the combination. Sense of place – a core component of my existence too.
P. S. I was in Seattle yesterday. Its very, very, very wet windy and gray! A typical NW fall/winter.
This is a stunning piece of work.
I never have those feelings of wanderlust. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or bad! Apart from wanting to move a little further into the country, I like the idea of being fixed and settled.
Beth-i’m not surprised that we both share the same feelings as we both seem to have moved a bit! I love what you wrote and I am envisioning one of your paintings in these words “as if we are floating, rootless but still grounded”…
thanks sunrise sister for sharing your experiences with me. I agree- wishing to be somewhere else does make time pass too quickly. Life wasted! I’ve never been to Walla Walla, but am familiar with it. I suspect that we will be back in WA at some point. I felt that the PNW was “Home” the first time I set foot there. I blame the post pregnancy hormones that convinced me to move back eastward! 🙂
Hi Leslie- thank you! Sense of place is definitely a theme in my life. I even miss those wet, windy, gray days!
Thanks Jo- I actually long for that feeling of being fixed and settled…and so I keep searching. 🙂
Your words resonated with me because my trip to Kyoto Japan was to find my ‘roots’–as well–
You’re prolific — is it your expectancy that’s made you so productive?
Lovely work Bridgette – I did not realize you were from the PNW. I had a very nomadic upbringing in a military family and always longed for proper roots. Once I arrived in the northwest I new my soul was home. Thanks for the inspiration!
Wow, your work never fails to stop me in my tracks. Beautiful! Stunning.
hi bridgette.:)
i love this piece and the title.
i have been wanting to add some rootlessness into my life as for a while i feel my roots are so deep, too deep perhaps, here.
this piece is absolutely gorgeous Bri! — i love the grunginess of it, and the depth of layers:) You are so very talented with encaustics!!
Eloquent post my friend:)
Really lovely and warm.
I think I understand about missing a place…