The Red Spirals

Acrylic with gold leafing, then subtractive painting

This acrylic orange spiral painting was completed. My shoulders were sitting squarely and I was proud of my handiwork. The USA elections were coming to a count and as I voiced my gut beliefs, an acquaintance called me a blatant bigot. I loudly protested. My reasons in voting against a certain candidate had nothing to do with his skin, but his lack of a substantial game plan, yet the cry of prejudice rang and echoed in my ears. An internal inventory proved this acquaintance to be dead wrong. However,  something unexpectedly happened as the days passed, certain tidbits surfaced not about the candidate, but an attitude towards those who believe the government SHOULD take care of them. I go to work and am in excruciating pain yet, I press through until the job is completed; so, why can’t others do likewise? I was vindicated in my stance against government entitlements.

A still voice inside whispered but do you have love and compassion for everyone? Do you truly love others,  as you love yourself?  Do I, in all honesty, apply the golden rule to those, whose life styles do not line up with  my convictions: the Ten Commandments? I began to see under the respectable niceties of social behavior that I harbor unmentionables. Naturally, I was appalled at what lay beneath the surface of my own heart. I was begrudgingly grateful towards this acquaintance,  by exposing my inner weakness. Not that I am questioning or forfeiting any of my convictions, I am just setting a goal of embracing people in love,  not approval for their choices or their behaviors but looking at their potential as Christ does.

I took this completed orange and gold spirals painting and  began some subtractive painting. First by covering it with 70% isopropyl alcohol  then scrubbing it  with a brush, digging down beneath the surface, exposing the primary layers. Unfortunately, I do not have a before photograph and the after is in progress as you can clearly see. I have been intrigued with spirals for several months. Spirals represent the dichotomy in all of us, because  they project  or recede, they spiral clockwise and counterclockwise.  They are powerful vortexes or portals to another dimension. The show a beginning and if one goes out far enough they become merely concentric rings in a slice of time.

OOOOOha Donna

I spoke with a friend today, you know one of those friends with whom you don’t see for years yet the relationship is not constrained by the boundaries of time. We laugh, share and cry nearly every session we speak. I am reading the biography of an Irish author of the early 1900’s

He says, “Nothing, I suspect, is more astonishing in any person’s life than the discovery that there do exist people very, very like himself.”

This very much describes my friend, Donna. I don’t think there is a medium that she had not experimented with in some fashion moreover executes with grace, elegance and perfection. She did a sumi painting of my son that is stunning. Donna showed me how to extend the tent stakes of my heart. Her upbeat, enthusiastic glass half full attitude is catchy because she see situations what they can be. She is not a glazed-eyed Polly Annie, but one who envisions the potential in circumstances and people. Valentines to you Donna.

Ink_and_wash_painting