The Substance of Personhood

"The Substance of Personhood" - mixed media on Canson art board, 20" by 16".  Ready to frame.  Available here and at Artfinder.

A rare Monday post as we prepare for an evening of revelry!  The Ambassador of Listowel, Damian Stack, has arrived, and we're hosting a soiree in his honor.  I don't know if he will mock our Guinness floats and green sheet cake or find each delicious.  But I do know my heart will rejoice to see a bit of Listowel after many months away.  

One of my traveling companions from the residency, the artist Carolyn Laudati,  is here to greet Damian and to experience a full immersion into abstraction during a week-long workshop we're attending with the artist Pat Dews.  This week is sure to be an adventure!  And so an early  post before the madness begins. :)

This piece started as an experimental watercolor and an underwater sea creature painting.  Oh yes!  Sharks, manatees and octopi cavorted in a tangle of seaweed and bubbles.  But I didn't love it and so kept tossing chalky paint and burnishing and marking until this star-gazing countenance appeared...the sea became the heavens and the creatures swam away.  Following the paint is a twisty-turning path, filled with surprises.  The one constant between the beginning and the ending of this piece is the orange.  And if you're curious, here is a brief history of that color.

Ultimately, this version resonated with me.  In the current chapter of Mark Nepo's The One Life We're Given, he delves into the three fears: fear of the past, of the present and of the future, and of a time when he was paralyzed by all three occurring simultaneously.  The silver lining of allowing yourself to fully experience fear is to be stripped of all the tools and tactics for dealing with them until "the chance to rely on no tools at all but on the substance of [your] personhood, trusting it [will] eventually meet the wind like a wing."  It's all there - right inside us.  The very substance of our personhood is the only tool we need to traverse the land of fear.   

Let's meet the wind like a wing today.  And raise a pint to our guests!