Posts tagged ‘landscape’

This is the latest thing I painted and the first thing that I finished in 2012. It felt really good marking the back with the first day of the new year. This picture came about after a trip to a history museum that focuses on the evolution of the suburban life. I rode there in a minivan with another family and as we drove to the museum we stopped and called out to some horses that were by the road. Normally I wouldn’t think to stop a car and try to talk to some horses. They don’t talk back after all and if they did, what would I say to a horse?

Anyway the whole thing was surreal to me. Visiting an entire exhibit detailing the takeover of American Indian territory and the systematic separation of races. It’s a complicated history. I started to see  my personal history differently. I think I see my choices from a broader angle. I don’t’ know if that will reflect in the kind of paintings I make or drawings I start with. But I know it will reflect in the choices I make in my life from this point on.

Oh – I called this painting Pastoral. It was a word that kept running through my head the whole time I was working on it (and this one took a while to come out).  I read up on it and realized that in literature it is used to describe a complex idea in much simpler terms. I think I’ll borrow that meaning for my painting.