Duet

Acrylic On Gessoed Aspen Leaves Over Canvas | 2019 | 12in x 12in

Over the past few years, we’ve watched several of the aspen trees around our home fall prey to disease, old age, and neglect. They’ve exposed some of my own journey and brought an awareness that maybe there was something I could have done differently. In moments like this, it is wise to assess one’s boundaries and see where else disease has come. I turned inward. Perhaps my way of doing life needs to change and hands must open a little more to receive instead of strike in perceived defense, or more accurately, in defiance. It has polluted our well. My soul gesture towards she who is closest to me could be a generosity of spirit and a swift forgiveness instead of relying on her abundant grace and maturity to bare my begrudging ego bruises and stubbed toes of doing life in intimate proximity.

To bring two unique souls into orbit and literally knit them into one another with vows is to cause a kind of fusion. Regrets are inevitable in that cosmic nuclear reaction of the heart over time. Every aspen leaf saturated in gesso and anchored into the canvas is a moment. They are echos of regrets from dead and dying trees paralleling dead and dying dreams. Thankfully, awareness births opportunity. Strange how there is always a hope given; a choice to enter death or life through it. Will every regret be an anchor to the past or a trophy of wisdom? In wisdom, a future can be filled with color more beautiful than even the wisps of etherial dreams could propose.

The swallows are gaining altitude in the painting, they are entering into a new future. Coming from the sunset hues of the past and into the fullness of blue sky day and hope for tomorrow.