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“Embryonic Journey” is the first of a series of paintings that explore life’s voyage. I grew up in a wooded area of southwestern Connecticut. My early childhood was spent playing in the woods surrounding my home. This painting is a memory of the time spent alone, with crows and jays calling overhead, the chatter of squirrels and the rustle of leaves underfoot. But it is the overall silence I recall; the suspension of time, the feeling of belonging to the woods, of being safe within the branches of elm, birch and oak trees. The joy of discovering a ring-necked snake or spotted salamander. The thrill of identifying the call of a whip-poor-will or yellow-shafted flicker. Listening to the crows and ravens and bluejays and imagining the content of their conversations. In the woods I felt at peace with myself and with the world.

In this painting I explore the concept of inner journey, and the mystery that surrounds every foray into the unknown.  

This is an intuitive painting in that I started it without any concept of what the painting would be. I let the image emerge from the paint. To me, this painting is about the side of ourselves that we keep hidden, even from ourselves. It is like a dark closet where we throw in all self-doubt and anger, guilt and shame, resentment and grief, pain and remorse. We keep that door tightly shut, because those feelings don’t jive with the sunny face we present in our everyday lives. The face that is expected, accepted, counted on. But as we embark on the journey of self-discovery, we must face that part of us that we fear and let go judgments.

"The voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes, but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust

On the news this morning I read an Associated Press report that snow had fallen in Baghdad for the first time in anyone’s memory. The story went on to say how delighted all the people of Baghdad were, watching this “snow-rain” fall from the sky. One man, a shopkeeper, thought perhaps this was a message from God. The AP report concluded by saying, “For a couple of hours anyway, a city where mortar shells routinely zoom across to the Green Zone became united as one big White Zone. As of late afternoon, there were no reports of violence. The snow showed no favoritism as it fell faintly on neighborhoods Shiite and Sunni alike, and (with apologies to James Joyce) upon all the living and the dead.” Maybe it was a message from God. A message for Peace.

I’ve had a great week off from my “day job” and was able to complete two paintings and get a good start on a third. I’ve been painting big – 20x40, 30x40 and just bought the canvas for my next painting which will be a 36x36. The new painting shown above is 16x20 and is called “Letting Go of Fear.” We all have fears that hold us back from the dreams we have. This year, one of my resolutions is to let go of the fears that stand in the way of my growth – as a person, as an artist, and as a horsewoman. Other new paintings can be seen in the “Just off the Easel” collection on my website.

Years ago, my mother gave me a book, written by Nancy Wood and illustrated by Frank Howell, called “Dancing Moons.” The book follows the twelve moons of the year, starting with January. It has meditations for each month that coincide with the path each moon is supposed to show us. January’s great path of the moon is solitude. It is a time to take stock of your life and begin anew, while the earth sleeps. It is not a time for regret, but a time to look forward and start planning your new life, like a gardener who starts planning the vegetables to be planted in the spring.