Ask Much, Want More

"Ask Much, Want More" - oil on paper, 17 x 22.5.  This piece is unmounted and unframed. (click on the image to purchase)

Ask Much, Want More

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Ask much, the voice suggested, and I startled.
Feeling my body like the trembling body of a horse
tied to its tree while the strange noise
passes over its ears.
I who in extremity had always wanted less,
even of eating, of sleeping.
Agile, the voice did not speak again, but waited.
“Want more” -
a cure for longing I had not thought of.
But that is how it is with wells.
Whatever is taken refills to the steady level.
The voice agreed, though softly, to quiet the feet of the horse:
A cup taken out, a cup reappears; a bucketful taken, a bucket.
 - JANE HIRSHFIELD, Ask Much, The Voice Suggested

Ask much?

Oh HO!  How the inner being quivers and shies away from the very thought of it.  

WANT MORE!  

How could I possibly?  

And yet...those of us who have experienced perhaps a less functional upbringing, a bit (or a lot) of trauma, the silencing of our asking, the muffling of our wants and needs - we need to ask much and want more.  Makes me shake in my very boots (​I startled...like the trembling of a horse)​

Hirshfield's "voice"  suggests a bucketful - so now I am thinking cargo tankers and blimps filled with my heart's desire.  Dare I?  Oh yes, I do.

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About the art:  Wonderland is never far from my imagination.  It was just a matter of time before the Queen of Hearts made another appearance.  And in this one, her voice VERY LOUD, she asks for (nay, DEMANDS) exactly what she wants.  This is one of those pieces that happened easily, relatively swiftly and without much gnashing of teeth.  A neutral underpainting, a quick sketch with brush and dark paint, layers of walnut-oil thinned paint on skin and clothing.  A little extra care with the focal point (her open mouth) and a full RESIST RESIST RESIST when I wanted to keep fussing with it.  I mean, if you get what you ask for, stop and enjoy it - don't keep fussing at it.  Sheesh.  Artists are troublesome. :)

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The September Reader Giveaway has begun!  Leave a comment on a blog post this month and be automatically entered.  Leave multiple comments to be entered as many times!  The winner will be drawn at random at the end of the month, and will receive a piece of original art - free!  Hooray!