July 2020

Discovery - Full Circle
 It is said that after a long series of events or changes, the same situation that you started with still exists.
My journey over the last 6 months came Full Circle this month.

About 10 years ago I began to play with acrylics. Most of my artistic expression has been created in watercolor. I was told, just after graduating with a Degree in oil painting, that I had atopic dermatitis and would have to "give up art." I told the Doctor that I would never give up art. I would just change mediums.
Watercolors fascinated me in high school, so I started down the very long path educating myself in this new medium.

As a young child  I trained for the Olympics in Gymnastics. One of the greatest lesson I learned on the balance beam was "never look down; always look to the end of the beam and you would not fall off." The concept was to keep the goal in your mind as you walk the narrow beam. To this day, it has served me well as a life lesson.
 
With this in my mind, I began my 15 year devotion to a new medium and put myself through years of training to learn the intricate and complicated nuances of watercolors. Now, as I develop and grow into another new medium- acrylic, I have followed the same road of daily experimentation.

The circle began with acrylic abstraction in December 2019. I then went to intense realism and now ,I am slipping back into complete .  I float for a time in a place of quiet meditation.

It feels good to have something to say with all the recent complicated concepts found in my figurative work. It is also wonderful to murmur wind-filled whispers to the world and allow space between words and responses.
 
I watch as my cats take long, lingering moments to stare out at the world and never say a word. I am lounging in the luxury of stillness on the roof in the evening and letting the paint drift and flow.  

Opening the Door, Jessel Miller