My show, "The Pomegranate Seals" at the multimedia exhibition Sweet!, sponsored by Piccolo Spoleto and presented by Artist on Fire, featured 8 paintings, one of which is below. I'll post the others over the next few days. Below is my artist statement for the show:
The Pomegranate Seals: Ancient Seeds of Wisdom
When I was 8 years old, my cousin introduced me to the pomegranate. She had a pomegranate tree in her yard on Edisto Island, and we broke open the fruit right there in the yard and ate the seeds. I had never tasted anything that incredibly sweet and good, and that taste created a memory that remains powerful 50 years later.
The pomegranate is a fruit that stems from ancient times; it may well be the “apple” that was used to tempt Eve in the Garden of Eden. Throughout the centuries the pomegranate has been used literally and symbolically in religion, art and literature.
I have used the pomegranate as a metaphor for “the sweetness of the good life”. This is not to diminish the fact that each life has its share of sorrow and pain; rather, as my father used to tell me, we choose to focus our thoughts on the positive and look to the good.
These eight mixed media paintings, “Promise”, “Prize”, “Passion”, “Preparation”, “Planted”, “Propagate”, “Perpetual” and “Perseverance”, each incorporate words of wisdom illuminated on vellum with 23 karat gold, in the spirit of medieval manuscript illuminations, to reflect on the sweetness of the good life. Much as the ancients used a seal in wax as a symbol of authority, each illumination “scroll” is sealed in wax with a handmade pomegranate seal.
"Passion"
Mixed Media with Illumination
10x12" framed Gold Plein Air
SOLD
One of the things I love about being an artist is finding out the stories about why someone connects with a particular painting. Sweet! closed Friday, June 7, and that afternoon, an elderly lady came to my tent in Marion Square, looking for the artist of The Pomegranate Seals at Sweet! She said she'd been to the show 3 times, and she had really enjoyed my exhibition there. She said she and her husband had taken a trip to Ireland the year before he died of cancer, and a highlight of the trip was seeing the original Book of Kells in Dublin and how that ancient illuminated manuscript had fascinated her. There was one piece in the show she was particularly drawn to, "Passion", and while she wasn't in a financial place to purchase it, she wanted to sit and tell me her story. She said that she was in her eighties and was deeply in love, and she felt that was part of the reason the painting resonated with her, together with the saying "Passion provides the fire that propels us toward our dream." It seems that when she was young, perhaps 19 or so, she had dated a young man who took her by surprise one day when he kissed her and told her he loved her. She was so stunned she was speechless, and he ended up running away. She never saw or heard of him until recently, 62 years later. Both of their spouses had died and their children were grown, and a few months ago she and some girlfriends were out and struck up a conversation with another group who said they were from a small town in SC. She asked if they knew several people she had known from that town, one of whom was the young man from 62 years ago. Not only did the group know him, one of the gentlemen saw him every day and said he'd have him get in touch with her. So she gave her phone number and her old beau called her that night and wanted to see her the next day, and both admitted that they'd never stopped loving each other. That story was the highlight of my Friday, and I shared it when I went to pick up my pieces from the show Friday evening.
I decided to take the unsold pieces to the outdoor art show on Saturday. Late Saturday afternoon, that lady came back and told me her friend wanted her to get the painting, so she purchased it, and I know it's now where it's supposed to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment