Sirius-ly

“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.” – Vincent Van Gogh

Siriusly?  I try not to get too serious when painting, preferring instead to use a little humor to get through the rough spots. I guess that reflects my views on life, too.  In this case I was asked to create a painting for Wilde Meyer Galleries "Dog Days of Summer" show.  Full disclosure - this is the second painting I created for the show; the first one went to a return collector of mine who saw it in last Friday's letter and had to have it.  So then I had to come up with a new painting with the same overall vibe, and I think I succeeded. 

So the "Dog Days of Summer" gets its name from the "Dog Star", aka "Sirius" in the constellation "Canus Major".  The Dog Days are traditionally the 40 days leading up to the heliacal rising of Sirius, being the period of 3rd July to 11th August.  These are considered to be the hottest days of the summer – especially in the regions around the Mediterranean sea, where Sirius has long had a major role in mythology, religion and agriculture. Sirius is the brightest star in the sky but, more importantly to the Egyptians, its heliacal rising coincided with the start of the inundation. A heliacal rising is when the star reappears in the east just before sunrise after being invisible for a period. In Egypt in 3,000 BCE this occurred at the summer solstice; now it is about six weeks later. “At the same time that the Dog-star rises…the Nile also in a sense rises, coming up to water the land of Egypt.” The reappearance of Sirius brought the hot ‘dog days’ of the summer. From the earliest times New Year was considered to start with the inundation because it was so critical to the country. 

In this painting, there is also a playful appearance of the Cat Eye Nebula,which exists in the constellation Draco. If you look at a map of the constellations the two are pretty far away from each other.  So perhaps that's why Canis Major looks pretty surprised at being stalked by the Cat's Eye Nebula. 

As for the Owl...the Owl Nebula hangs out in Ursa Major, which, according to the constellation map, sits above Canis Major in the sky.

The waning Crescent Moon appears this year on July 14-15, right in the middle of the Dog Days of Summer.

I love it when everything works out! Of course, when I'm painting, I'm not aware of any of these things...just like most of the quotes/poems I include with my works, it is only after the painting is well under way that I figure out what it's about. Everything I paint comes from my gut first...then my heart and head have to figure out together how to communicate a feeling.  Whew! It's not easy being me. But I wouldn't have it any other way.

And as for the title...when I say it in my head, I hear the voice of my 14 year old grandson who likes to ask, "Seriously?" about things he perceives to be random.  And Sirius-ly is, at its heart, random.