This month seems to be about getting all the old stuff out, this life, that life, here, there. Let it all hang out and hang loose. Speak up, speak out, speak your mind. Free your soul and lighten the load.
I’m doing some of that myself. Here are two paintings that I just completed that show I am clearing out the cobwebs in my mind — the darker, dirty recesses of my soul. Painting is my process. It’s how I work through the layers. What’s yours? Figure it out, and get to work. Your process doesn’t need to yeild beauty, just understanding and a feeling of easing.
I love this first one — it reminds me of Goya’s Black Paintings, a deeply dark and gritty series of paintings that I spent many, many hours admiring over the years strolling through the Prado in Madrid. I even used to have one hanging on my wall in College. The raw emotion in the series always spoke deeply to me, and where others have seen madness, insanity or grotesqueness, I saw strength, beauty, power and humanity.
“The last time I saw you
You were taken away
Battered and bruised
Torn from my hand
Leaving me broken
Angry and grey.
I went out into the world
Trying to find you
But all I found
was dust and smoke.”
This next one is a bit lighter and brighter. Named “Reunion”, it’s all about balancing, above and below, male and female, left and right. The elements, the energies, the essences. Bringing some flow into the world, some ease and harmony.
Both pieces are available for purchase in my etsy store, foxravenart.etsy.com