Releasing Long-held Grievances
Into The Blinding Light of Love

Acrylic on Canvas
36 x 48     2018
$1900.00

This is a recently finished painting that I worked on for almost six months.  So to have it finally finished is indeed a celebration!  Much of that six months was taken up by my relocation efforts moving my home from Waterloo to Hamilton.  But whenever I could steal a paint day, I’d find new ideas to try with the painting…

The thing I really love about doing abstract paintings is that the reference image, or, starting point, for the piece need not dictate the final piece in any way.  Which means I can fall down the rabbit hole with the painting for as long as it takes me.  This piece took me for quite a journey far far away from the source material which consisted of a few random drips of paint forming four figures.  The source material drips had inspired me because it hatched the thought of trying to create a piece that was about bringing out the dark grievances in life into the light of understanding and love.  It seemed like an important idea to chase, and chase it I did!  While the imagery evolved drastically, the concept of dissolving grievances with understanding remained a constant.  

The images of the four figures, though radically transformed, also remain somewhat intact.  Everybody has unspoken grievances, and usually it’s because it can be difficult to talk about the things that can lead to disagreements.  The grievances are stored in the dark vessels along the bottom of the picture.  The left-most figure happens to be the figure getting the most attention, and the grievances that are being aired mostly come from her.  This figure is deemed by me to be a ‘she’; her focus is her immediate neighbour, who I deem to be her partner. The two figures on the right are relatives and also serve as support for the couple.  As she is finally able to communicate her grievances, the darkness she had held inside dissipates into the yellow light as the understanding from her loved ones becomes evident.  The grievances are dissolved into smaller effervescent particle globs that are surrounded by the yellow light of love that bubble upwards and eventually dissipate into the yellow light of understanding.

While the exact issue that formed the grievances is not terribly important to the piece, I invite viewers to come up with their own ideas about that.  My only suggestion is that she may happen to be reaching the later stages of her childbearing years…   As well, the ultimate result of airing her grievances is not exactly important to the piece, and again, I invite the viewers to envision the ultimate resolution. I suggest that important point of resolving her grievances is that she was heard, appreciated, and loved by the most important  figures in her life.

While the painting is essentially about love and understanding, I am hoping that it is a visual treat with humour, warmth, and harmonious spirit with a presence of positivity.

I wish you all a very merry holiday season full of light and understanding and mostly, full of love.  🙂