2008

The paintings of 2008 surprised me. While visiting my grandson camping on Jones Island in Puget Sound, on the way back to the boat, I discovered along the shore, an area full of eroded rocks of unusual, strange, powerful shapes. Half immersed or totally submerged in the water or even displayed dry on the shore’s sand, they took my breath away, and left me speechless with a strong desire to paint them. I was deeply impressed considering them a nature’s gift, a poem written in rocks, offered to people to enjoy. Being in transit, with no time to stop, look and admire them, I used my camera to capture their strange beauty. At home, I enthusiastically painted my first several small canvases of 20”x20” in fluid acrylics.

Sound Water A Sound Water A
Sound Water B Sound Water B
Sound Water AB Sound Water AB
Sound Water 4 Sound Water 4
Sound Water 5 Sound Water 5
Jones Rocks 1 Jones Rocks 1
Jones Rocks 2 Jones Rocks 2
Jones Rocks 3 Jones Rocks 3
Jones Rocks 4 Jones Rocks 4
Jones Rocks 5 Jones Rocks 5
Jones Rocks 6 Jones Rocks 6
Puget Rocks 2 Puget Rocks 2
Puget Rocks 1 Puget Rocks 1
Puget Rocks 3 Puget Rocks 3
Dreaming Gold Dreaming Gold
Remember Klondike Remember Klondike
Searching for Gold Searching for Gold
Stone Bouquet Stone Bouquet
Memories Memories
Summertime Summertime
Worries Worries
Tension Tension
Growth Growth
Aggression Aggression
Swoop (a.k.a. Medusa) Swoop (a.k.a. Medusa)
Swoosh Swoosh
Puzzle Puzzle
Biopsy Biopsy
Pierced Shade Pierced Shade
Stumpy Stumpy
[Show slideshow]
A book found by chance on a Library shelf attracted my attention.  It brought me closer to understand a page of American history of the beginning of 20th century, when, during the Yukon Klondike Gold Rush, young and old Americans risked their life on frozen slopes of Alaska, dreaming to find gold and enrich themselves. It inspired three paintings and many thoughts about human drives and destiny.

Out of nowhere, my doctor looking at my mammogram found something suspicious and wanted to investigate. It brought a shade in my relaxed mood and it was reflected in my paintings on paper which got appropriate titles: Worries, Tension, Aggression, and Biopsy. The last procedure cleared the doubts and my mood returned to normal.

Summertime revived in my memory the task I had as a 6th grader to catch insects and present them dead, pierced with a needle to my teacher of Natural Science. It seemed to me so cruel, at first, I could not do it, I cried. Later, following my colleagues, I did it without pain, tears, and regrets. My first reaction was genuine, humane and should have been preserved and cultivated. It was plain wrong to teach children to catch and kill and become insensitive generate pain and suffering.

The Puzzle is a spontaneous painting triggered by holding in my hand a brand new, extremely thin brush, exercising to discover how can I use it.   Amazing, my exercise inspired its name.

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