Getting Ready...

I'm beginning to get my pieces ready for my art show. It's going to be a lot of work, but I can already see how it's going to be helpful for me. By re-visiting each piece, I am re-living the feelings and emotions I had when I created it, plus I can see it through new eyes now. This canvas is titled "Washing Down." I painted it on a solitary retreat to Christ in the Wilderness, which is in Stockton, IL. The heart radiates with various layers because of God's love washing down over it. It was a feeling of complete peace and well-being, of One-ness.


After writing a little blurb about it, I will wrap it up and pack it. Then on to the next one!


The other photo is of a book I purchased today at Barnes & Noble, "Mixed Media Self-Portraits," by Cate Coulacos Prato. I've been drawn lately to the idea of doing self-portraits. In the past, I have thought of self-portraits as being slightly narcisistic, but I've come to understand how powerful they can be. From the book: "The first stab at self-portraiture can cut incredibly deeply. It takes no small amount of courage to seek inside the soul..."

I'm beginning to think that this stage of self-portraiture will open the door to a whole new level of art. Which is one of the reasons for this show: to organize, evaluate, summarize what I have already done, in order to clear mental space for the next stage--whatever that may be.