Today we have a new bunny friend. This one came from Marion, a woman who likely had the greatest influence on my character. If I remember correctly, she is the reason I started to go to art lessons in the second grade.
I think that most artists would agree that glass is a challenging subject to paint. Capturing the transparent and reflective qualities can be akin to trying to shovel sand in the wind. I like a challenge. I like to work hard and I like to tackle things in life that are not easy. I don't always choose the challenges I take on wisely - some days I am unbelievably stupid and get sand blown in my face. Today was not one of those days. I feel like this is a successful experiment with glass as a subject -though maybe not the best compositional exercise. I feel I captured both the solidity of the glass and the transparency at the same time. It feels heavy and grounded as well as luminous and delicate - in my opinion. Maybe you disagree? Feel free to comment and share your thoughts on this challenging subject.
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Just when you think you might be able to move forward, to survive, to get out of the shadow... you run into another car and desperately need the comfort of the thing you need to move away from, the thing that is causing all the shadows, the thing that is draining your life. After the crash, all anyone wants to know is if you are hurt. Initial response, no, I'm not hurt. Then time passes and all you feel is hurt and all you want is comfort and as you paint your damn wrist starts to ache and you know, yeah, I'm hurt.
This figurine has a hole in its butt. No clue why or what it's purpose is. I'm starting to like the bunny. Change isn't instant but it might grow on me. An old friend suggested I think about writing the letters "ttt" somewhere to remind me that "things take time". I've been like the rabbit - running, running, running. Feeling like I'm late all the time. Perhaps I need to think about that urgency and rest a little... These are THE bunnies I spoke of when I told you about the roots of my interest in painting a bunny. Love the carpet circa 1983! At approximately 12:37 pm today, I became consumed with the need to paint. I think the urge stemmed from the fact that my prior thoughts were all about contacting an unreachable person... Painting tends to take my head to a calmer place where I'm less likely to dwell on reality and how much it sucks. Anyway... I get home and find that I have no small boards. I don't love the 12x12" format anymore and thus my therapy session has been a bit of a bummer. And, I don't love this bunny. He's just not doing it for me... I want to move on, really I do, but I crave the comfort that has been left behind. I'm not talking about the bird, I'm sure you know. It's all symbolic for me and the rest of the world lives with their feet planted firmly in reality. Rabbits... Sometimes I prefer to call them bunnies... I'm shifting my obsessive painting from the little bird to the bunny and have some great stories that explain my fondness for this animal as an image source. First, as a child I loved the story of the Velveteen Rabbit. This is one of the few stories I remember reading as a child, or having read to me as a child. For some reason I think it was my paternal grandmother that shared this book with me - but I don't know if this is true. There are other fictional rabbits that stick out in my memories - Peter Rabbit and the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland come to mind first. Second, two bunnies served as my first pets; Thumper and Princess. They lived in a hutch outside and would come in the house to play. All I really remember is how soft they were and how they would always poop on the floor while hopping around the living room. Then, Princess, or was it Thumper, bit my mom. This caused a panic of "is the rabbit rabid?" and the next thing I knew, my bunnies were going to "live on a farm" despite the fact that I lived on a farm... Years later I learned the truth about the fate of those bunnies - let's just say it wasn't pretty and the poor thing lost its head over being in heat... Third, I recall having a thing for rabbit's feet as a kid - I must have bought a dozen disembodied feet in various colors from Santa's Secret Workshop in elementary school. I find this really odd since I also had live rabbits and clearly this was a foot from a once living animal. Fourth, the first time I remember visiting the Philadelphia Museum of Art I was drawn to the Neoclassical still life collection - specifically the compositions that included dead animals like rabbits and birds. Still life that include dead animals remain some of my favorite images in all of art. This really isn't a morbid fascination, it is a long standing tradition in art - here's some PROOF! Lastly, and possibly most oddly, for some unknown reason when I was a senior in high school, I started sleeping with three pastel-colored Beanie Babies bunnies. I took those bunnies with me to college and always made sure they were in my bed. I took those bunnies with me to my first home, where I lived with my now ex-husband. The bunnies are not the reason I am now divorced, but wouldn't it be nice if they were? I have no idea where these bunnies are now. I recently asked google about the symbolic meaning of the rabbit and I find the results fitting. There's also an interesting article about the use of the rabbit as a symbol in art. The rabbit is said to symbolize:
Apparently I am not the only artsy-type who is thinking about rabbits, and once again I find myself in pretty good company while I explore my current obsession. Check out this article on rabbits in art if you would like to see more examples of the rabbit as an image source. I don't always know how I feel about my approach to painting. Painting the same object, day after day, feels less like "real art" and more like academic study. Though my goal was to explore composition and light, I have found myself going down the rabbit hole of self while I work on this series. In the history of "real art" there are a ton of examples of artists who use the same, or similar, subject matter in their work over and over. Degas is best known for his ballet dancers. Keith Haring brought the same outlined figures into much of his work. O'Keeffe revisited the skull and bones again and again in her work. These three artists, three of my personal favorites, reassure me that as I repeat myself in each painting, I'm in good company. However, I'm left wondering how these artists felt about their subject matter. Were these images a source of comfort or a source of angst? Did they love the act of revisiting these forms or were they trapped by the form and desperate to move forward? Personally, I wish I could get out of this rabbit hole. Progress:
I went to work today. I didn't cry today. I saw some light today - not a glowing, shadowless light, but some light creeping in to remind me that I have no reason to be afraid... I feel sadness for people who allow fear to rule their lives, who allow fear to hold them back from happiness. I'm not afraid. I'll live a meaningful life with family and friends who I will never ignore. I feel sadness for the shadow that won't let all the light in. I'd like to stop painting this bird... I don't know if I can though, it won't leave me alone. I wish someone would come along and shatter the thing so I could stop. Everything else is shattered, this should be too. Unfortunately, the tiny piece of rational thought left inside my head thinks this bird might be worth something and my mom would be hurt if I broke it (especially if I did so on purpose). |
Lora Marie DurrDuring my undergraduate studies, I spent a great deal of time in the painting studio working with traditional oils. Teaching middle school art for the past 12 years has taken me away from those roots. This "one a day" project is aimed at re-inspiring that creativity and technique. Archives
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Other "one a day" painting blogs to check out:
Hannah Phelps Kellie Marian Hill Carol Marine Lisa Daria Darren Maurer Carol Aust Karin Jurick The usual Subjects |