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Losses and Hardships

6/19/2023

9 Comments

 
"Losses and Hardships" - oil on plywood, 15 x 16.25.  Available here and at Artfinder.
Fairy tales were a natural fit for the fantastical imagination of the young artist. Since her earliest childhood, she seemed to dwell partway between the real world, with its disproportionate share of losses and hardships, and some otherworldly wonderland of levity and light — a wonderland Virginia could now bring to life for the world.

​ - from THE MARGINALIAN, on the life and art of teenage artist Virginia Francis Sterrett by Maria Popover.
The fairytale crowd are corralled into the studio waiting area this week, as we pause to mention the lives of crows.  Alice and her cohorts will return next week with gusto.

Rocky and Natasha, our adopted crow family, seem to have lost not one, but two fledglings this season.  Their little departed selves ended up in our vicinity, so we scooped them up and gave them a proper farewell.
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Losses and Hardships
One of the crows (Natasha, we believe) spent a few late afternoons on the birdbath near the tiny memorial site, watery-eyed and listless.  We know that crows do mourn, and we thought perhaps she was (and hoped she was not ill). We sat with her when we could, softly talking and making our own (awkward) crow sounds.

I suppose we have created a fairytale around these two city crows.  We watch them, make up stories about what they're doing or thinking, add a wonderland of levity and light to their little lives.  We illustrate with our words, appreciate with our eyes and connect with our hearts.  Anthropomorphism at its best.

​What we really want to know is - what stories do they conjure about us?

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About the art - beginning with a crow photo and a ton of words about mourning and crows for the AI bot, I finally landed on an inspiration image that combined both birds and abstracts into something emotionally representative (in my eyes).

A piece of square, thin plywood left to me by my recently departed art friend seemed the perfect substrate for this subject.  Beginning with thinned oil paint and the basic background, adding the crows one brushstroke at a time and resisting​ the urge to perfect the details.  Walking back to look, walking forward to dab.  This piece has been varnished with Gamvar Gloss, an odorless varnish which brings out every bit of color.

Congratulations, Molly and Dotty!  Wonder Mike and Lilly drew your names out of a bag of treats - you're the winners of the June Reader Giveaway!  Watch your mailboxes for a little original art coming your way.  And thanks SO MUCH for participating!
9 Comments
Dotty Seiter gmail link
6/19/2023 04:09:01 pm

omg! Wonder Mike, way to go! Another surprise coming my way!

–––

Lola, LOSSES AND HARDSHIPS is perfection: the bold colors + the substrate left to you with love by your departed friend + your resisting the urge to perfect details + the backstory of the mourners + all the painting you've ever done positioning you to paint this very painting.

Reply
Carol Edan link
6/21/2023 02:24:43 am

Dotty congratulations! Crows are my favorite people!

Reply
Lola
6/21/2023 02:55:46 pm

Dotty! HUZZAH! Congratulations! And thank you...as usual, your comment leaves me teary with joy and feeling very encouraged. Big hugs! xo

Reply
Carol Kitchell link
6/20/2023 01:40:45 pm

I love this painting so much! I love crows. Your words were very affecting. They opened a crow door for me. Crows are known to rob the nests of other birds and grab the babies for a quick snack. Watching a crow fly up to a post with a crying baby in its beak and then begin to tear it apart alive and eat it has stuck with me. Still...they draw me like magpies and ravens do. But I hadn't thought of the crows themselves losing their babies to predators. The complexities of life. For human and animal.

Reply
Lola
6/21/2023 02:56:42 pm

Carol! OMG! The "complexities of life" have me in a big ol' snarl, a tangle, a heap. And I love that this opened a crow door for you...xo

Reply
Carol Edan link
6/21/2023 02:28:26 am

My computer trick is still working! YAY! I love this painting, the crows, and dynamic colors! Simple works but so hard to do.

Reply
Lola
6/21/2023 02:57:24 pm

Carol!! YAHOOOO! Love that the trick is still working. And thank you - I wondered if it would be TOO simple, and yet, I found it punchy and impactful.

Reply
Howard Horvath
8/17/2023 09:49:41 am

So unique and so mesmerizing!

Reply
lola
8/17/2023 03:11:01 pm

Howard! Thank you so very much!

Reply



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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
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