I was surprised to find out two of my paintings were featured on Redbubble. The first was a version of Face It and the second painting is Lady Hope. She got featured yesterday. This so so cool. You can see my featured moment here.
Strange I know but above being happy about getting featured I was more pleased with the fact that a talented artist that I truly admire favorited Face It on my Flickr page. I like this artist because of how he paints people. One particular piece shows a nude lady standing in what I call a ghost town. She’s standing stark naked in the middle of town with no one in sight yet she’s holding a gun straight out still trying to protect herself. Now, this is of course my personal spin on the painting. His stuff lets you do that, spin your own meaning. But when I look at this painting I see a woman that is exposed yet isolated. To onlookers it’s like, well why is she naked and why is she holding a gun when she is the only person in the painting? There are no other people in desert town. Perhaps someone is standing just outside of the frame? I figure she is and has always been in protective mode even when there is no real cause for that level of alarm she’s still at that level of alarm. Louie’s paintings are quite vivid, quite detailed. I hope when people look at them they look with the depth they demand. So, even though I was featured on Redbubble (twice in fact) I was so honored that Louir liked a piece of artwork from a small time Indiana girl. Now that is enough to make a girl smile.
The two pieces that were featured are both art therapy pieces. The pieces with the most meaning to us were the one’s chosen but it got us to thinking. I wondered if people will start to long for the romantic and exotic type figures Joan is known for or the floral paintings Maureen is known for. Since Robert has been out there haven’t been too many of those. I doubt that there will be. I wonder if I’ll scare people off the art blog because of how different his art is from the art of other Pride members. We did paint Angel the other day which has a slightly different feel to it than our other works but it is certainly not Robert’s artwork.
The stuff he’s been through reflects in his work. The busy, full, constantly moving, high texture images he creates accurately show what’s in his head and how he feels. Dr. D asked what Robert’s life was like. I didn’t know how to explain the howling, the incessant howling. That’s how he use to do, kind of as a way to ward off but also to bring others closer. Robert’s howl was quite mournful. He needed someone to hear him but he was scared to death, scared of himself and of others. In his artwork he is able to relieve some of the pain of his past.
Robert is the main one in our system that experienced torture by the hands of our mother but the hands you see in the picture above are not of concern to the nested masked figure. They’re protecting her, guarding her so that she can grow, she has a reason to hope. She’s several different colours but not divided as to which is her true identity. The mask in this image though, it’s not like the others. She has no identity yet, she hasn’t decided who she is. There’s nothing to withhold because she hasn’t grown to that point yet. She can only hope that life will give her a chance to find out. She is being guarded, watched over closely so she can flourish, so she has a real chance at bursting forth. Notice the rays that come down and flood over her. In every single way this woman child is nurtured. In the beginning we called her Guarded but the title changed to reflect the more positive side of the painting. Now we call her Lady Hope.
Austin
Your art work deserves to be featured! I just took a good look at Face It, and had to get off that page fast. It began to evoke within me so many emotions that I couldn’t begin to even describe them.
I can relate to that feeling of being on constant red alert even when alone.