Two shows and some reworked work

 I'm proud to be part of  City Life, Captured, Scene and Unseen curated by Lori Horowitz and Kathleen Migliori-Newton, now on view on the New York Artists Circle website. 

And mark your calendars; you're invited to an online Zoom Event Monday, February 6 at 7 PM, EST    Here's the link; City Life Zoom Event .

I also have two pieces in a show titled Hope out of the Darkness at the Belksie Museum in Closter, New Jersey. I'll be posting more about that next week.

This week I took a few half done drawings out of the flat file and gave them a second look.  I had put them away in boredom--I'd been looking at them for too long and nothing was happening. I don't know if absence made my heart grow fonder, but I looked and thought there might be hope for them.

I I liked the blue floor and the three arches but they were very beige, so I added a lot of Indian Yellow and Yellow Ocher and livened it up.  The photograph is lightning over south Hero VT by my brother, Rob, so it's part of the Saint Barbara project.  I'll probably add a dancing Barbara.

I've been thinking about Saint Barbara.  I don't know if I've told this story but if you've heard it just humor me.  I have always remembered the painting of the Martyrdom of Saint Barbara as living in the room at the top of the great stair case at the Met.  You walk in and it's right on the right, at least twenty feet wide and ten feel tall. But I went to visit it last spring and it wasn't there!  I asked the dour elderly guard,

 "Where have they taken Saint Barbara? He looked blank.  

"You know, where her father is about to cut off her head?"

"Look in the room down the hall to your left--that room's full of folks getting their heads cut off."  I gave him another look and he kind of winked at me.

I was shocked to see that the Martyrdom of Saint Barbara is only about four by four.  Had I blown it up in my memory? How could I have been so wrong?  I'd better not ever be a witness in a murder trial.

I've been searching for images of Barbara and her Dad and I'll never draw the awful moment. I like to wonder what could have happened if they had talked things over. What if he had said, "Well, Honey, I don't get it but I love you and I've raised you to be a pretty smart cookie so if you think this new religion is for you well, who am I to say nay?"  But of course then she wouldn't be a saint, so, maybe I shouldn't try to re-write history. Here's my picture of their imaginary nice chat.

I also went back to my Red Pagodas which I had thought was just too, I don't know, just not what I was after.  But I kept at it and I'm still not convinced it's my best ever but I won't throw it away. Maybe it needs more green.

I'm glad I took a break from these pieces and I'm glad I went back to them.  Remember what that famous painter, Winston Churchill said, Never Give Up.