Contemplation~What IS at the Center of it All?
16"x8" acrylic on canvas
I started this one ages ago. It did not satisfy. It was mostly red and green with gold in the center, and turned 180 degrees from this orientation. So when I had some of that lighter blue paint mixed and used in another painting, too much to waste down the sink and not enough to save, I smeared it on this painting with my hand. I started loving the result and worked it more, then turned the painting upside down.
I was working this as the great leak occurred: Roe v Wade was going to be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. So the form at the center of this painting kept asking "What is this?" and the response was different variations of "It's not anyone's business." So I'll have to think on the title further. Titling paintings is a process. It takes some gestating and a knowing all the nuance of the process. It's ultimately up to me, though, right?
As this shift has occurred and the ramifications of the decision have reverberated into peoples lives, and more importantly, into the lives of those who most intensely bear the responsibility, the question became more clear: What IS at the center of all of this upheaval that continues on, this need for control of another individual's life and decisions, this ultimate fear that becomes pervasive and threads its unhealthy perspective across the nation? I am feeling, more than ever, the need to center myself, to be clear in my understanding and continued search to determine what it means to be human on this planet at this moment in time. What other people do and how they choose to live is none of my business until it bumps up against my individualism and my community. More than ever, I strive to acknowledge this moment and move forward out of love.
