Reconciliation Dream

I have added some images to my Flickr mosaic at the top of my blog. This is the image from the back cover of my book.

It's been quite a day, trying unsuccessfully to order 25 copies of the most recent version of my book, 42 years: a book of changes, through iPhoto.

The best part of the day was when two Canada Geese flew in and landed at the southeast end of Scudder Pond, and I was able to laugh out loud at how absurdly difficult it was to make a simple order through iPhoto.

I thought that was the best part of the day until I got phone call from an old friend. We talked for a long time, catching up, laughing, sharing experiences, strength and hope.

Working with Intuition and Three Angels (1984/1992)

When I began this painting in 1984, I had no idea that it would take until 1992 before it was complete. When I stopped working on this painting in 1984, I considered it a failed effort. For the most part my drawings and paintings are done in the space of one or two days, but on occasion I will tack a painting on the wall for a year or more until I figure out what it needs in order to be complete. 

This painting didn't go on the wall but went in my stack of what I considered affecting but failed efforts. 

In the summer of 1992, I went through my stack of failed efforts, found this painting, and decided to crop it and add some new elements that were part of the imagery and style I had begun using in 1987. "Three Witnesses" became "Working with Intuition and Three Angels." 

As a side note, when the finished piece was shown in Blue Horse Gallery in Bellingham, Washington, the card beside the painting was mislabeled "Working with Intuition and Three Angles," an intriguing reading of the title. The difference in color between the two reproductions can be explained by the fact that the photos were taken on separate occasions under different lighting. I was unable to match them using the iPhoto adjustments.

Sleepless Woman with Moon and Birds (1983)

It required some thinking before I could remember the name of this drawing. It wasn't until around 1987 that I began to write down the names that I gave to my drawings and paintings. Once again, I am finding that looking back at my work is a good exercise of my memory. 

This drawing has a connection to a poem I wrote in the early 1980's called "A Nation of Sleepless Women," which I posted yesterday. I was disappointed in the way the color of the image came through the first time I uploaded it because it had a cold blue look. The true image has much warmer blues. All of the colors are warmer, and even the black area is a warmer black. So, I went into iPhoto to see if I could remedy that. I clicked on "adjustments" and began playing with the brightness, contrast, saturation, temperature, tint, sharpness and exposure. I even discovered how to straighten the photo! What a revelation! The only thing I couldn't adjust to my satisfaction was the color up against the woman's face. The red near the woman's face in the first uploaded image is more like the original red. In the original image on paper, it is a red with more blue in it than orange. Of course, seeing a reproduction is not the same as seeing a drawing, but I got as close as I could to the spirit of the original drawing in the second uploaded image.

Just to see what it would look like, I made it into a black and white image.