Sometimes when I take too long to finish a painting the core idea manages to drift … probably because it wasn’t that well-anchored in the first place. Sweet Chariot is one such project. The original concept was a fuzzy version of geometric wheels on the wallpaper background, a foreground horse in profile … an interesting portrait, aspiring at best to Beauty. Then the wheels of life turned, and the painting took on the emotion of its time. The idealized horse image, no one in particular, individualized day by day into the bearer of our deep, deep pain, ultimately taking the name Elijah. The wheels started spinning a tapestry of life and art — of anguish and hope — of mythological heroes and villains — of cycles within cycles.
Lordy I miss those days of painting without pain.
There’s a tiny bit more to do on Sweet Chariot, but I won’t be able to get back to it for a few days, and I’m just itching to give birth, albeit a premature one. I’ll surely let you know when it is finished and signed.
