My show, Into the Common Ground, hangs for one more week, until January 12th, at the Kada Gallery in Erie. One of the paintings that I was asked about quite often at the opening back in early December was this piece, a 20″ by 24″ canvas titled Rigel. What was that blue orb? The sun?
Well, when I was painting this piece there just seemed to be something a bit different in the feel of it before I had even opted for the blue ball in the sky. Maybe it was the ultra warmth of the red and yellows that made me want to counter it somehow or maybe that odd feeling made me want to accentuate it even more. I am not really sure.
But the blue orb appeared and all that came to mind was the star Rigel which appears in the night sky as the foot of the constellation Orion. Rigel is one of the brightest stars in the night sky and is a blue giant star, extremely hot and large but short-lived due due to the intensity with which it burns. It’s a star that I always look for in the winter sky when I make my way home in the walk from my studio.
It’s brightness and location in Orion make it jump from the dark sky. In those moments the light from it seems so cold and distant which seems like a paradox given the great heat with which it burns. And it’s that paradox that I saw in the blue orb in this painting.
A rightness in its wrongness.
It’s a painting that I always linger over for a few moments when I run through this show as it makes me think about so many other things than what seems obvious on the surface.
And I like that in a painting…
Redtree Times 