Choose Your Bread And Your Company
oil on cradled wood panel
18 x 24 x .75 inches
This item is unframed but ready to hang.

​What women wander?
Not many. All. A few.
Most would, now & then,
& no wonder.
Some, and I’m one,
Wander sitting still.
My small grandmother
Bought from every peddler
Less for the ribbons and lace
Than for their scent
Of sleep where you will,
Walk out when you want, choose
Your bread and your company.​ - MARIE PONSOT

The incredible sensation of freedom and independence fostered by choice. Be it the path you wander, the bread you eat or the company you keep, the right to choose is something I hold onto fiercely. 

Because women didn't always have choices. 

I love the idea of wandering sitting still which is similar to wandering in the paint, which is where I live most days. I hold on fiercely to my right to wander from one medium to another, one style to another, one substrate, one genre, one inspiration to a whole other realm of muse-ness. Don't pin me down, don't make me settle, don't slow my roll. (Though I will stop for a hot buttered roll fresh from the oven. Yum.)

​Even the right to choose to tie one metaphorical arm behind my back when creating is an option I value.  The right to choose less.​

And so here we are at the art.

Some months ago, dear friend, the writing coach Thea Fiori-Bloom shared with me her favorite painting. It is called "The Chestnut Gatherers" by Georges Lacombe (1868-1926)

In a  tradition I learned years ago when I was with a gallery in Charlotte, NC, I decided this was the piece I would skew this year.

I have "Skewed The Masters" many times in the past, including this piece called "A Murder Most Fowl" which is skewing "The Death of Marat" by Jacques-Louis David (1748 -1825). This was part of the chicken challenge between my artist husband and myself.