The other week I shared the in process video of this piece and I’m happy to share that I finished it sometime last week and it is now in its new home, which is an office in Baltimore. The collector asked me to share the story behind this piece with her. I’ve heard people say that the artist should keep their thoughts to themselves and leave their work up to interpretation, but I personally always like to hear the story or meaning behind a work. Just like how I prefer paintings with titles rather than “untitled”. But stories matter to me and so that makes sense that that is my preference. I think that interpretation is a partnership- the maker and the receiver both taking part and mattering.
This is a very layered piece because it used to be another painting with the same title. The thing is with me and I’m not saying it’s a good thing….if a painting is in my studio even if it’s exhibited somewhere….if it stays in my studio rather than move on to another show or up in my house or to a collector, it is vulnerable to me painting over it. I might be like, oh, I’ll just do this one little change…and then I end up with a new painting. That’s kind of what happened with this one.
But I kept the painting in mind, especially the title as I reworked it. The stripes and the dots of the land below the tree are original to the previous painting. They represent the layered land and seeds and growth. The tree itself has inspired many paintings. It’s a grand old tree in Washington, DC that I fell in love with the minute I saw it. I painted the top triangle a light blue but it didn’t feel done to me. It took me some time to figure that part out.
I have been thinking a lot about the sky and the night sky, in particular. Maybe it’s because I’ve been reading some pretty interesting astrology and that has always fascinated me. I’ve always been drawn to the night sky and the moon though, so references to that often show up in my work. I ended up adding cloth cut into a crescent shape to reference the moon. And the black tacks again repeat the seed dots at the bottom of the painting or they could be stars. Or maybe they are both. Generation, regeneration. Seeds, hope, growth, promise.
The piece of wood that the painting is on was a salvaged piece from a house project. And the frame I built is from an old yard stick that I painted black. I used 3 different power tools to build that frame! I’m pretty proud of myself for that. I am getting more comfortable with the tools we have. Which is exciting because it opens the possibilities of more things to make! There’s a reason there’s that saying- makers gonna make. Because, yes, we do. Over and over again.