I’ve been featuring a number of new paintings lately that will be showing at my upcoming exhibit, Facets, at the Principle Gallery. In this show, there is a wide variety of the motifs that I’ve used over the years and today’s piece is an example of a subject that I’ve revisited many times.
The simple shape and grace of the blowing tree give it such a symbolic sense and power that it always draws me back, often when I have no intention of revisiting it. This painting, In the Freeflow, is a 12″ by 17″ image on paper and is a great example of why this tree stays with me.
The tree takes a very bold stance in the picture plane, dominating the foreground on its mound, giving no evidence of its locale or environment. The whole narrative of the piece is told in its lines and movement and their relationship with the color and texture of the sky behind and even in the spew lines at the top of the image where the paint breaks free in rivulets going outward.
To me, this piece is about calling on one’s inner grace and strength to survive and ultimately overcome the forces that place seemingly endless obstacles before you. In the bends of the tree, I see the adaptive qualities that allow us to change and grow in different ways so that we might endure our travails. In the red flowing leaves, I see the unquenchable spirit of those who persevere, bending to the winds that push them in many directions but always rooted in knowing who they are. And in the bit of yellow in the sky at what seems to be the horizon, I see the hope and potential of a future worth the effort of this act of endurance.
Or maybe it’s just a little tree in the wind. Sometimes, as they say, a cigar is just a cigar…
Redtree Times 