Untukmu Para Pengunjung

Letting Go, pastel 9 x 9" $250

The All about Me Challenge was posted by Carol Marine on Saturday Apr 30, 2011. The details are: This challenge is just for fun - simply paint a self portrait. Nothing to learn here, except perhaps that a self portrait is frickin' hard! So, make it normal, make it silly, but let us see the real you! I was captivated by the "let us see the real you".

The real me has little to do with how I look and everything to do with who I am. I love blue skies, the warmth of the sun on my face and having a connection with nature. I am in awe of God's creation and I am thankful to be alive.

OK, I am well aware of the cliché, pushing up daisies. Soon after the photo was taken that I used for reference of myself, I was diagnosed with cancer. It was one of the scariest passages of my life and one of the most profound. After surgery, I was given a good prognosis and I am just shy of my five year anniversary. A day doesn't go by that I don't think of it. And the good news is, not a day goes by that I don't think about it! Life is short and I don't have time for crap in my life. Whatever crap I find, I turn into fertilizer that feeds my garden!

Memento Mori, pastel, 12 x 9" $150

One of the skulls that either my husband or I have found and cleaned up over the years. I guess its an artist thing...at least this artist. I have always been fascinated with anatomy. I used to study my father's manuals from when he was a medic in World War II. I believe all the copying of skeletons and muscles helped me to develop tremendously in portraiture.

On this particular piece, I was mostly concerned with painting the light and not the minutia of the skull. I was going for drama with the color. It was sad to me that this healthy young buck was shot and ran off to die, undiscovered until he could not be eaten. My husband came across his corpse while taking a leisurely walk in the woods and brought home his head. I find his skull both beautiful and disturbing, just like this story.

Missed You For Tea, color pencil, 2.5 x 3.5" $95

I entered this miniature into The Color of White Challenge, posted by Susan Abbott on Daily Paintworks. It is my second piece. My first sold this past Thursday. Missed You For Tea, although small, was a complicated piece that took approximately four hours to draw. I will be offering ACEO prints of this piece on Etsy.