grande madame: this is how i remember it

14 x 11
collage: pieced painted strips on paper

available
$230

Does this person look tense, even worried or sad maybe? I think so but I love that she is still looking outward and is thus alive to possibility.

This was a painting that came out of another painting that I tore up to see if the pieces were better than the whole. I used some of them here and the other pieces were used for the “bright morning” painting (also shown in the “mixes” gallery category). If you look at “bright morning” and read the description, you know that this woman found the brighter and lighter days that were just out of her periphery at the time.

Sometimes, my art is about the parts of our lives that are not as “pleasant” or “nice” and not everyone is comfortable with viewing that in a painting. I have seen people frown when they looked at this woman, as if they don’t want to see her unless she was pretty or cheerful.

I always want to embrace the whole person, in counselling and in life, including all the difficult and messy parts. All of who we are—all of it—is a welcome sight to me.