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Her Imagination Tends To Run Wild

"Her Imagination Tends to Run Wild" - oil on cradled wood panel,  16 x 16 x 1.5 inches  (click on the image to purchase)

Continuing an exploration of Seaton's Fiddleheads: 

Once when you hurt me I slept at a Red Roof Inn. I double-locked the door and tried to
watch talk shows to keep my mind off sounds like someone suffocating someone

in the next room. I thought I saw blood on the box spring and imagined needles and bulgy
veins, there’s something odd, I thought, about someone whose imagination runs this wild.

-FROM FIDDLEHEADS BY MAUREEN SEATON


Seaton's words are visceral and uncensored, off-putting.

She invites us to look at things we might not otherwise care to - especially those things that run through our own minds during challenging times.   

Visual art can be like poetry in that way, making us feel squirmy and uncomfortable because we feel stuff when we look at it.  I suppose that is part of our jobs as creatives - to invent a way to look at a thing that allows us to approach and sit with it for a moment.  Long enough for an aha, perhaps.  Or even just an oh.
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About the art - another piece created on top of an old one, using the underpainting colors to enhance the background and to cut through some of the foreground.  In using the poem as fodder for the art, I used harsh, edgy brush strokes and wedge edges for some of this piece, keeping the colors fairly stark and full of contrast.  Some soft blending, but mostly allowing the piece to fill with unrefined texture.  Especially important to resist perfecting this one, which feels Seaton's poem so deeply.
It's the last week to enter the April Reader Giveaway!  This month we're talking about poems (or lyrics or quotes) that hit you in a visceral way.  What's your favorite?  Leave a comment to enter - one lucky reader will receive a piece of original art FREE, just for participating.  Hooray!
10 Comments
Carl Stoveland - 2 years ago
Your ability to let a poem inhabit you and inform your painting is magical. Soaring and lovely or dark and uncomfortable does not seem to matter. I think I should read more poetry. I wonder if this can translate to plein air. I might try Margery Stoneman Douglas’ River of Grass and then take a new appreciation into the Everglades. Perhaps that is a we season summer project for me.
lola - 2 years ago
Carl!!! I had not heard of this book! I am going to order a copy. And would love to see this summer project for you come to life!!! Thank you so much for your feedback on the blog and art process. I've decided not to be afraid of the dark and uncomfortable this year. It's like walking into a dark forest when a storm is brewing - exhilarating and terrifying, both!

Wonder Mike says thanks so much for entering the April Reader Giveaway! Hooray!
Carl Stoveland - 2 years ago
I should have said start by reading Stoneman Douglas and then dive into poetry about the glades.
lola - 2 years ago
Got it! I'm going to do that!
Candis Ladenburg - 2 years ago
She is just fantastic, Lola! I love what this poem has inspired for you--your interpretations of it are simply phenomenal. YOU inspire.
lola - 2 years ago
Candis!!! Thanks so so SO very much! The same to you, dear creator lady - you inspire! xoxo

Wonder Mike says thanks for entering the April Reader Giveaway!
Candis Ladenburg - 2 years ago
(Well, Wonder Mike, aren'tyou the sweetest! Thank you so much but it wasn't my intention to enter the giveaway--I just won one and as much as I LOVE your mom's art, I don't want to be greedy! Sending you head pats and a hug for your mom.) 🩵
lola - 2 years ago
awwww Wonder Mike says THANKS and I am very grateful for the hug. xoxo
Dotty Seiter - 2 years ago
Lola,

1. Composition is strong here!

2. Her imagination is definitely running wild—and it shows in her face … which reveals something (wildly) different each time I look at her. Everything thing from DEEP and VERY DARK to holding back laughter. I am mesmerized.

3. No wonder I feel as though my hair is flat.
lola - 2 years ago
Dotty!!!

1. Thank you!!

2. I am just delighted to know she conveys all these wildly different emotions (especially the laughter!)

3. ha ha! Right? Me, too!!!!!

And Wonder Mike says thanks for entering the April Reader Giveaway! Hooray!

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Lola Jovan

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