Reflections upon my Imbalances

Reflections upon my Imbalances is oil on canvas, 72" x 84". I've been trying to figure out what to say about him...how to explain him. The best I can come up with is to include an email I wrote to the person who submitted the picture.

I can't write much...way too much to deal with right now. But, I wanted to get you a picture of the final Reflections. I hope you agree that the completed portrait is far less intimidating than the unfinished picture I sent you.

Actually, painting Reflections has been such a wonderful experience for me and I wanted to share it with you. I don’t think of myself as a compassionate person (something I am trying very hard to change about myself), but something about the pictures you sent to me brought out empathy and concern in me. This was one of the reasons I decided to paint it...I thought if it could inspire compassion in ME, think of the good and beautiful energy it could bring out of everyone viewing it. As I worked on the painting, I noticed the feeling of compassion growing within. I thought a lot about you. I looked into your "eye" constantly and repeated a loving kindness mantra (May you be filled with loving kindness, may you be well, may you be peaceful and at ease, may you be happy), hoping it might make some difference to you.

Then, at my open studio last week, I noticed the same sort of reaction in those who viewed the portrait. They were drawn to the portrait; to you. In their faces, I saw compassion, care, love...all good things. YOU have inspired this and I have no doubt that it will come back to you.

Be well, my friend.

Lizzy

Rose-Colored Glasses

When I started this painting (Rose-Colored Glasses, oil on canvas, 54" x 72"), it was intended to be a "processing" piece - a painting used to define and reflect on something personal...usually a difficult past situation that I didn’t handle very well. (And, oh my, there are many. Maybe that should be my next show; “Paintings Needed to Process the Stupid things I have done.”) Rose was meant to explore that surreal time after a marriage dissolves and dating begins. Having been away from the dating game for so long, I was curious (and honestly, distressed) about how a person could seem one way at the beginning of a relationship and seem entirely different at the end of the relationship. Our society uses the idiom "seeing through rose-colored glasses" to explain this phenomenon. Definition: "With an unduly cheerful, optimistic, or favorable view of things." So, I picked one of my personal pictures; from a vacation to Vancouver (um, where this particular relationship concluded), cut out the person who was in the picture and colored the sea red. I absolutely swear I wasn’t trying to be nasty or bitter...and honestly, was surprised at people when they suggested I was. I was just “processing.” (yeah, yeah...tomato, tomahto.)

So, as I worked on this painting, I waited for an epiphany about where I went wrong and how I might do better in the future; how I might be able to avoid the pitfall of those rose colored glasses.

The self-realization came...a little different than I expected, however. First, I finally realized the negative tone I was adopting with all of this “processing” (thick-headed, I know) and started looking for the positive. Which, in turn, made me start asking myself, “What’s so wrong with rose-colored glasses? Why shouldn’t I wear them ALL the time? Wouldn't the world be – or at least seem like - a better place if I did?” It might seem kind of Pollyanna of me, but I have made a conscious decision to wear rose-colored glasses 24/7 (metaphorically, of course....I would look silly otherwise).