Lessons Learned

Oh, the lessons I learned in this painting...

This was my first real venture in piecing wood together to create a really large panel.

The layout and building were kind of a breeze - and there it stopped. The carving was such an embrace of the unknown - how to give each board its own look and feel, respecting the presence lurking within, and still create a cohesive whole? I spent easily as many hours staring, as I did carving.

The painting process was excruciating, one mistake after another, with the piece remaining uninspired and a complete mystery to me. I quit several times, and each time my husband would tell me to try again, that it needed more paint.

When it finally pulled together into a cohesive painting, it was like a sneeze. One more swoosh of color and done. There it was; a combination of color, texture and form that called to something so beyond itself that I was awed that it had come from my hands.

"Shone On in the Darkness" - mixed media on carved wood.