Monday, February 4, 2013

Painting by Metaphor


North Shore Lake Superior' is one of my most self examined works. Those who know me personally know that I am on a big cancer journey. I was motivated to paint a work which has two harmonious landscapes - my internal landscape and an external landscape which work together to best express my world. And for those with an interest in such things, I will explain more.

The metaphor of life takes on at least 3 different forms in this work.  Firstly there is a traditional journey river of life. The painting has a directional sense.  I began the journey into the painting with a cluster of trees (birches on the left side)  Again, trees are ancient life symbols.

Since I have cancer, my journey is taking me from blackness to the brilliance of the  light  in the right corner.  Its not unsual for painters to do scenes in which the eye moves from right to left. I see that there is are some focal issues with this work. I will reshoot it again tomorrow in natural sunlight.




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