Improbable Coincidences

Improbable Coincidences
oil on Yupo
11 x 19 inches (plus a border for framing)
This item is unmounted and unframed

It seems so odd to me now, how one can be so unsettled by the improbable. When we know that our entire existence is founded on freak occurrences and improbable coincidences.
― Solvej Balle, On the Calculation of Volume I

We just finished reading On The Calculation Of Volume 1 and I find myself contemplating how easy it is to be rattled by the things we don't expect - the unlikely, the surprising, the improbable. 

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In the book, a woman becomes stuck in a repeating day.  Although she can experience the day differently, the world around her repeats - the weather, the people, the news - everything. And the book is largely about the shifts she goes through over the course of a year of grappling with this improbable situation.

Personally, I am not great with surprises, especially when they aren't, well, good ones. It throws me off, makes me edgy, gets me to gritting my teeth. But I learned recently from friend Dotty Seiter to begin saying and this too​ when these things happen. It is just another thing in a long string of things. As I say it, I can feel the shift in my insides. Everything changes just enough that I am less rattled.

And Balle is so right in pointing out the improbability of our very existence as humans in the universe - why should we be rattled by more freak occurrences?  Next time I am saying softly to myself and this too, I will simply look up at the stars and nod knowingly. All of this is an ​improbable coincidence.

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About the art: beginning with a gesso'd piece of Yupo and an inspiration image, I roughed in the outline of the figure with a pencil and then painted the first layer of background paint (working outside-in) and further refined the figure outline. Then a long drying time. Following with the face and hands, I used a thin layer of paint to place the main facial features and the structure of the hands around the heart. Another drying time (oil is all about patience) and then a tiny brush to place small details on face and hands, then more layers of paint on both. While those layers dried, I worked on a base coat for the hair and clothing, the neck and the skin of the arms (shadows and light). More drying time! A few more layers on the face and hands, another layer on hair and clothing and arms, then a final, very loose layer on the background. About five weeks from start to finish. This joyful, heart-generous girl makes me smile. 

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