Our Wild Ride Into Modernity

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Our Wild Ride Into Modernity
oil on canvas panel
20 x 24 x .1 inches
This item is unframed
(click on the image to purchase)

But I want to extol not the sweetness nor the placidity of the dog, but the wilderness out of which he cannot step entirely, and from which we benefit. For wilderness is our first home too, and in our wild ride into modernity with all its concerns and problems we need also all the good attachments to that origin that we can keep or restore. Dog is one of the messengers of that rich and still magical first world. The dog would remind us of the pleasures of the body with its graceful physicality, and the acuity and rapture of the senses, and the beauty of forest and ocean and rain and our own breath. There is not a dog that romps and runs but we learn from him. - Mary Oliver, Dog

It is becoming more and more difficult to resist the allure of the wilderness.

Of forest, of ocean, of mountain, of river, of meadow and desert and butte.

Which is an interesting conundrum as my aging self requires more and more modernity to be comfortable in its own skin, and to function well. Let's just take a bike ride, for example. Helmet, padded gloves, special shoes, ankle wrap, knee supports, KT tape for my right foot. And yet...I don all my accoutrements and set out like a ten-year-old every morning I can, gleeful and playful and powering up and over bridges and down again.

Hikes require an entirely different set of physical accomodations, and rockhounding in the ocean yet another.

But this is the price of reaching that feeling of unleashedness - like Wonder Mike feels when we're at the beach and he finally, FINALLY gets to run wildly up and down the sand, racing far away from us and then zooming back, giddy with his freedom.

Oliver is so right - we need also all the good attachments to that origin (wilderness) that we can keep or restore. And so off we go, Wonder Mike, too, for another brief getaway into all that is wild and wonderful. I can hardly wait!

A little animation (with music!) of Medb, who was inspired by a Bluesky human with an inner warrior of feisty and fierce proportions. I want to be like her when I grow up. :)

About the art: I often use people and pets as inspiration for fantasy images. In this one, I used Wonder Mike as a jumping off point, and ended up with this gazelle-like soulful dog, who clearly does not belong on a leash. For this one, many, MANY layers of thinned oil paint to create the bold, abstracted shapes and colors in the background, and to create the shadows and fleshtones of the dog. Alternating between wide, wet brushes and thin, dry brushes for movement and detail. Resisting the urge to define the background, allowing the dog to come forward and the leash and its shadow to feature prominantly. As with the controversial gun in a recent painting of Pippi Longstocking, the leash symbolizes so many things. What does it mean to you, dear reader?

Just one more week until the winner of the July Reader Giveaway is announced! This month's prize is this oil painting on driftwood brought home from the Olympic Peninsula.

To enter, leave a comment on any blog post this month (or more than one! Each comment counts as an additional entry). A winner will be chosen at random and announced righ here in the blog on August 4th. Ready? Set? WIN!

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