i love the photo of my mom in the passenger seat of my parents convertible in about 1950. i have painted it a few times. each time i change the elements a little bit and i change the energy. this one is my favorite. it's called ruby's night flight. the one on my mast head of this blog is called ruby in the sky, or ruby's winter ride. that is the one that i used as my christmas card a few years back. it sold earlier this year and i am still a feeling the vacuum and am a little sad about it. but happy at the same time that she found a home that loves her.
sometimes people ask me how i feel about selling paintings of my family. i know it seems weird. i retain the original photo and its attendive memories , of course. but the paintings to me are more of an exercise in describing a more universal person - anyone's mom or a person who we can all relate to or is doing something we can all relate to. i am not trying to recreate the actual image of my folks.
this is a subject i touched on in my post about the "farm boys" painting a few days ago...i like the contrast of a wholesome time (meaning the 1950's) juxtaposed against elements that slightly contradict, like a lone woman sitting in a car finds herself speeding across the night sky, as though she is likely to speed past santa and some startled reindeer. i do this for interest (something you wouldn't expect, but could possibly understand---i mean why wouldn't there be more traffic christmas night?) and a bit of humor.
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