This is my artist statement for this piece:

"When I think back to us I can remember the good times, the bad times, all the things we've gone through together. I want the bad times to shrink away like grapes becoming raisins in the sun. (Somehow). But not disappear. But the joys between us, they resound as trumpets in the cold wind cutting through the air, bouncing off the facets of us..mirroring the moments we hold dearest."

One thing to know about me is that I am on the dork spectrum.  I consider myself a little bit dorky, just enough to guffaw like a lady.  My kids think I'm off the spectrum on the other side, and need to tone it down.  My friends, well, I don't really know. I haven't asked them directly where to plot me on the dork diagram.

See that back of the painting up there? I put that there because I want to talk about what's ***behind the painting*** on my fancy blog.  Well, you literalists can look no further than that photo.  That's what's behind it. Some velvet circles to protect your wall when you buy it, A wire for easy hanging, and carefully categorized id number, date, and signature to complete the look. 

I remember thinking and feeling a lot of things while creating this.  It was made over many sessions of layering.  The sessions were drawn out because I like to let the oil paint fully dry which can take up to a week.  Sometimes I listened to music, which would conjure up ideas and feelings, and sometimes I would sit in silence.  Towards the middle of completion I started thinking about memories.

Memories are finicky things. They flitter around in our minds, sometimes staying when we want them to go, sometimes going when we want them to stay.  Why do some stay and others go? Is there a reason, or is it random? 

There are some memories of our solitary selves, but many times our memories are linked to others, and they weave together like radio waves, or smoke circles, or Venn diagrams.  I thought of a Venn diagram when I painted this.  I also thought of that little sliver of tension, be it good or bad, that is right between two figures.  the little slice of negative space right here:

I also just pictured this to all be in motion, constantly swirling.  I only painted a tiny moment in time. I let the paint wrap around the sides seen here:

and also here:

This painting is a little bit mysterious even to me, because there is a lot of meaning behind it.  I am feeling especially proud of it as I reminisce all the hours it took me to conjure it up.  I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading a little about what went into it.