portait complete...ahhh

So, in October 2010 I was apart of an auction fundraiser.  Long story short, a wonderful family bid and won that custom painting=portrait.  

Winter came and they didn't have a great photo reference.  So we decided to wait until Spring and I would take some new photos.   Spring came, and in May I ruptured a disk in my back.  That set me back.... big time.  The photos didn't even happen until late summer after I recovered.  Then I started the portrait.  A couple paintings later, and with help from my mentor, Deb Meyer, who generously taught me some tricks... it finally came together and I love it.  And more importantly the family does as well.

In the end it forced me to work in oil and colored pencil....   I have always prefered acrylic paints.   Well, this project has given me a new love of oil paint and use of colored pencil.  The blendablility, the creamy quality is to die for.    What was feeling incredibly frustrating and pressured painting, became a wonderful experience in the end.  I am grateful I pushed through those growing pains.

Promise

"Promise"
20"x24" acrylic mixed-media painting 
with original photography image transfer 

"Promise" has been created for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation's

  Promise Council.

I am so honored to have been asked to create a piece inspired

 by their mission to "promise" to help to eradicate pediatric AIDS.

Not only is it an amazing promise it is absolutely possible.   

A little info about "Promise":

"Promise" is a piece full of symbolism, and while I often like to leave that to interpretation, in this case I think it is important to share the specifics...

This painting is 20"x24"mixed media acrylic painting on canvas, which is highly textured much like the landscape in which we walked during AIDS Walk Africa.  The photo of the children is an image transfer of a photo I took in Swaziland for AWA of school children I met.  The photo has been dismantled and reassembled to create images of children both showing promise and hope, as well as children caught within the AIDS pandemic.  

Additionally, I have used a photo image transfer of the cellular form of the HIV virus and dispersed it throughout the painting (strips of orange color) 

symbolizing the AIDS plight the children are faced with and eradicting it.  

The flowers at the base of the painting symbolizes the children's song that they bravely sang to us during AWA 2008 at a school 

"HIV is killing our community.  We are the flowers of our community." 

 The flowers being another symbolic image of hope and promise.

In 2008, I participated in AIDS Walk Africa with EGPAF in Swaziland 

It was a calling of my soul to connect to 

mothers and children impacted by the AIDS pandemic,

 something I knew I had to do.

It was an incredibly inspiring and eye-opening journey.  

A journey that leaves you forever changed.  

You can't go to Swaziland and witness the reality of the AIDS pandemic

 (33% of the population is infected) without knowing you must do more.

"Message from Swaziland" was my response to what I witnessed. 

So to be asked to create a piece specifically for EGPAF's Promise Campaign feels like a natural extension of the 
"Message from Swaziland" series.    

I am honored and grateful to offer this piece to those who PROMISE.

This quote from Elizabeth Glaser says why we must do more so perfectly....

roots

We all have a famiy tree and roots.....

this painting was inspired by 

beginning a search into our daughter's roots last week.

I so badly hope we find information for her....to understand her Ethiopian roots for herself and future generations.  I hope....

I Believe....

I believe in the sun, even when it is not shining.
I believe in love, even when I can't feel it.
I believe in God, even when he is silent.
-written by a man in the wall of a concentration camp

This painting has been evolving for some time, but I finally feel like it has reached its completion.  


I loved the idea of creating a sculptural type effect on a canvas.  I layered canvas sheets onto a stretched canvas, cut away at it, nailed it in places and designed until I liked what I saw.  I didn't know where it was going to end up...I love that type of creative process!   


Then used lots of gesso to create a density to the sculptural shapes.   


Layers and layers of paints came until I felt the combination of color was just right.  Then I waited for the perfect something for the "window"....and then this quote came along.    
I love this quote because of the hope it reveals during despair of our world's history.