This is an older painting from the mid 90’s that I call Red Flute. It was one of the last Exiles pieces and one that always pleases me very much when I come across it in my files. I wonder, when I look at a piece such as this, how the person who has this painting in their home or office views it. Do they stop and look at it at all or has it melded with all the other artifacts in their life, a background to their existence? Have they created their own myth of the red flute and its meaning?
I often wonder what part, if any, the paintings play in the lives of those who acquire them. I hear stories such as the one from Kada Gallery owner Kathy DeAngelo who told me about her son who lives in California and has a small piece of mine. When he and his mate leave home for any period of time they take the piece with them for fear it might be stolen.
A young lady several years ago told me that she owned a painting of mine that traveled with her and while she had been living in Brazil she had specifically told the lady who cleaned her apartment to never touch the piece. She said the housekeeper would veer around the part of the wall where the painting hung.
I am fortunate to hear such stories and it’s gratifying to know that your work can live on as a part of other people’s lives. It’s one of those motivators on those days when the whole act of painting seems foreign and very abstract, when you stop in mid-stroke wondering, “Why am I doing this?”
And I’ve had a few of those…
Redtree Times 