Thursday, April 26, 2012

About Time

Been thinking about time a lot. This is an eventful year. My youngest moves from elementary to middle school. My oldest officially becomes a teenager, godhelpme. I’m going back to school to finally finish the art degree I started 30 years ago. My own sweet little mommy is inexorably slowing down like a dearly loved heirloom clock. My friend and neighbor has just begun her fight against breast cancer and my thoughts are very much with her and her husband and young son. I turn 50 this year and I can no longer pretend that I don’t notice the years slipping past me and the effect of that erosion on my body. Not that I’m going to give in to it, by any means. But I’m starting to admit to myself that it’s time I cultivated my personality more than my vanity, and that if I’m lucky, really, really lucky, I will be growing old. I feel time simultaneously pressing in on and slipping away from me.




This painting has many layers, starting with some journaling pages that I tore and used as a collage background. I subscribe to the somewhat kooky conviction that I’m merely the facilitator of my paintings and they kind of tell me what they want to be as we’re working together. At one point, the painting wanted a forest fire in it, but I decided that would complicate matters too much. We compromised with some modeling paste and some impressions of gears which then found their way into the collage. We finally settled on the title, “About Time.”    And it is.

6 comments:

  1. Oh my God! You made that?? I don't mean to sound like I didn't--I just thought you had picked a sort of perfect painting for the tone and content of what you were writing, and I loved it, but it turns out it's a real thing that you listened to into being! and you write beautifully. I want to be like you when I grow up. xoxoxoxo

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  2. Wow. Can I just cosign everything Emily said? Also, can the Goddess of the Shadle Matriarchy rain Her mysterious genetic blessings down on me? Cause hot damn, that is how I want to do 50!

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  3. I have the best cheerleaders in the world. Claire, I would love to link and be linked to - as soon as I figure out how. Emily, I have often said the same things about you! And Camille, the Shadle DNA will not be denied! Just look at your mama ...

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  4. I feel so priviliged to have seen this painting in person today, as well as here on your blog. It looks great online, but the textures and colors are much more fabulous in person!

    What a fun blog. I loved your perfect day fantasy. I think I'll start having that fantasy myslef. Who knew you could learn fantasy techniques from friends?

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  5. 50? Well, you make that sh** look good. Love you, miss you and I plan to see your face this summer. Barb. (p.s. be proud that I put in the astericks. This is not like me at all but I am being respectful of your space!)

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