Between Atom and Dust

Between Atom and Dust

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"Between Atom and Dust" - oil on copper panel, 12 x 12 x .25 inches.  SOLD

This, then, is the agreement: Learning to live is learning to love, and learning to love is learning to die — the imperative in the inevitable that renders our transience meaningful and holy. The price of this holiness is absolute humility: There is no pact to be made with the universe — we die, whether or not we agree to it, whether or not we have learned how to love in the bright interlude between atom and dust. - MARIA POPOVA

Winter is coming.

The rains and cold have settled in and made themselves right at home here in the Pacific Northwest.  The leaves have fallen, the crows are gathering at sundown and the light is soft and brief.  It's a good time to contemplate and to create.

We lost one of our crows recently (to avian pox, we believe).  He chose our home to spend his final days, perched right outside our window where we spoke to him gently and offered him treats.  And as this little loss settles into my bones, it brings back other losses, whispers of the brevity of all things and the importance of making it all count.

Popova's words roil and resonate.  The imperative in the inevitable makes me want to hurry up and DO DO DO!  But I think it is the very opposite that is required of us.  A slowing down, a savoring, allowing the moment to saturate and permeate.  Which may or may not include allowing the feisty, frigid ocean waves to dunk me now and again when rockhounding at the coast.  :). Yep, I'm all in.

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About the art:  this is the first in a series of new pieces on copper panel.  You thought I was in love with Yupo?  I'm head-over-heels for copper.  Its is a bit pricy for a substrate, but the oils just love it, and the warm glow of it comes through like no underpainting I've seen.  In my quest for the balance between fantasy and reality, abstraction and realism, humans and  robots, I found myself quite enamored with this one.  The focus here was in capturing her gaze and the set of her expression, while allowing the rest to become abstracted, allowing the earthy background to contrast with the modern figure.  

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There is a double giveaway going on this month! Woot!  Leave a comment on any blog post this month to be automatically entered in the December Reader Giveaway.  And follow me on Bluesky (@lolajovan.bsky.social)  to be entered in a New Follower/Subscriber Giveaway  for yet another piece of original art!  And thanks to everyone who subscribes, follows, reads and comments - you make this artist grin from ear to ear!