Memory Creating the Self ~ Experiential Memory

Life is a balance between holding on and letting go.

~Rumi

2/4/2015 

7 3/4" x 5 3/4"

450.00

Yet another post about my solo show! (I did mention there were 33 pieces in all.)

There were 15 works in the "Experiential Memory" group of paintings. Some I've already posted on the post about the reception, and some I've still yet to post. These particular paintings relate to people (even if they look like flowers!) and to places I've lived.

Once again for those that are happening upon this post and haven't seen the previous writings about my show, here is the artists' statement. 

We are made of memory; genetic, experimental and body memory. We embody that which has come before us, as well as what we have experienced on our journey here. How much do we hold from our own past that we do not remember?

There are places and people we are linked with forever because they have left their mark on us. What is it that we will imprint on others and what will we leave behind?

My work integrates gold metal leafing, which incorporates memories of Thai temples and Italian altarpieces, from my own experience, as well as some deeper sense memory, that cannot be explained. There is a connection to history and tradition that I feel, as if I have been doing it for centuries.

All works are oil on wood panel with gold metal leafing.

(Music from the reception)

1979

8 x 8"

400.00

I chose to paint our sweet Japanese exchange student Noriko, who came to stay with us the summer between 5th and 6th grade. She brought a new world to me outside of my small California beach town. 

Be foolishly in love, because love is all there is.

~Rumi

1989

8 x 8"

(sold)

The painting above became very surreal, in style. I was fighting against it, in the beginning, but then I realized my memory of the place was indeed otherworldly. It was a place my friend and I found to live, on the Ocean, when I was only 20. It was like an incredible dream, to lie in bed and hear the ocean, to toast the sunsets and to play Chet Baker and cook pasta dinners for our friends ... and it was also the first time I ever fell in love.

1973

6 x 6"

(sold)

This was a beautiful pelican who sat on the Ventura Pier letting us take his picture. It's the town where I grew up, and the place I feel in love with the sound of the waves crashing on the beach and of sea birds and where most of my childhood memories live.

Don't sit and wait.

Get out there, feel life.

Touch the sun, and immerse in the sea.

~Rumi

1993 (on the easel)

10 x 10"

500.00

This next painting, was the piece that got me started on doing gold leafing again. I didn't know it would lead me to a whole concept for a show about images and memories that stay with you and become part of your being, and that help create the person you've become. 

I guess that's often the way of things. It looks like a simple still life, but it became something much more.

7/7/2015

7 3/4 x 5 3/4"

(sold)

Come, let us all be friends for once

Let us make life easy on us,

Let us be lovers and loved ones,

The earth shall be left to no one.

~Sufi Saying

Hope you are all enjoying the gifts of the season,

Blessings and light!