LolaJovan.com
  • Home
  • ART
  • BLOG
  • Exhibits
    • The Downside of Lycanthropy
    • A Song for the Hunted
    • The Wild God
    • NUDGE - SHOVE
  • BOOKS

Be the Lion

3/14/2022

6 Comments

 
Picture
Be the Lion
"Be the Lion" - mixed media on gallery wrapped canvas, 20 x 16 x 1.75.  Ready to hang.  Available March 20-21 at Artistic Souls Gallery.

If to find our way to our core is to face the lion, then to stand by our core is to be the lion. And to sustain the practice of living from our core—to live out of our courage—is to find our way in the world by tracking inner courage and where it lives. - MARK NEPO

​I am trying to live out of my courage.  

But to do that, as Nepo says, we have to find our core - face the lion.  It is pretty tempting to dodge that beast with the teeth and sinewy muscle.  It is really easy to skirt around the edges and do a little fancy footwork, keeping out of its path.  What I really want, I know, is to be the lion.  


And when you're looking for something, generally it finds you.

I didn't set out to paint this portrait.  But recently a lion came into my life.  A woman who faces her own lions and keeps on going, even when she's shaking in her rain boots.  This human IS the lion, but doesn't see it yet in herself.  I happened to snap a photo of her in a moment of fortitude and badassery, and that photo was stuck in my mind until I freed it onto the canvas.
Liberties were taken with this painting - it's in my own style, with my own interpretation of strength and resilience scraped and layered and scratched into it.  It is every one of us who has faced a lion even when terrified - even when we couldn't see our own courage.  I look at this piece and feel doubly resolved to live from my own core as I find my way in the world.  I hope she inspires you as well, dear reader.  She is you and me.

About the art:  beginning with a canvas covered in black gesso, creating a rough sketch with white charcoal.  Slowly adding in layers, following the paint where it meanders away from the inspiration photo to let texture and nuance form where it might not have been before.  Liberal use of a sprayer bottle and rubber wedge.  Scratching into wet paint with colored pencils to add texture and movement.  Resisting the urge to overly define.  Stepping away when her gaze told me the lion was in the room. 
6 Comments
Carl Stoveland
3/14/2022 01:56:03 pm

As always Jen you marry together a stunning painting with some wisdom we can all use. Thanks for sharing with us all.

Reply
lola
3/17/2022 04:27:43 pm

Carl! Thank you! Your comment means so much to me!

Reply
Dotty Seiter link
3/14/2022 02:13:21 pm

March comes in like a lion. And here she is. No doubt, she is leaving as a lion as well. Something about that flyaway bit of mane says it all, invites me to track my inner courage.

You provide SO much to explore in your art, Jen.

Reply
lola
3/17/2022 04:28:29 pm

Dotty! I completely forgot about the March lion thing! WOW! You made my day. Thank you!! xoxoxoxoxo Lola

Reply
Carol Edan link
3/26/2022 01:43:33 am

When we find our inner fear, we will be the lion!

Reply
lola (jen)
3/30/2022 04:23:41 pm

Carol! OMG yes yes YES!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Lola Jovan

    Picture

    Get Mail!

    * indicates required
    /* real people should not fill this in and expect good things - do not remove this or risk form bot signups */

    Intuit Mailchimp

    Categories

    All
    An Unexpected Life
    Bones
    Bossy Pants
    Mischief And Malarkey
    Rewilding
    The Art Of Seeing
    The Inner Landscape
    The Weight Of Words

contact lola
Picture
Here's the blue wild, where
tiny dreamers ride beasts, speak
​ birdsong, hold the moon.

(by poet Mary W. Cox)
​


​Art prints available on request
  • Home
  • ART
  • BLOG
  • Exhibits
    • The Downside of Lycanthropy
    • A Song for the Hunted
    • The Wild God
    • NUDGE - SHOVE
  • BOOKS