"Ester"
Ester feels the morning sun’s warmth as she lifts her face in prayer.
The “Abstract Ladies With Stories” Series Continues
This week, meet Ester.
When I sit in my studio and begin to paint I am not always sure where I am heading until it actually happens. What is moving me? What photograph triggers something? What memory is surfacing? What music am I listening to? When it begins, it just happens. Sometimes it is quick, other times it is all-consuming. I cherish each magical journey. Just as I cherish where Ester quickly took me on the day she came to life. She rose from the stark whiteness of the paper in simple black and white lines. She began to tell me her story.
Ester came about while practicing “Blind Contour Drawing Techniques”. The foundation for most of my paintings are balanced on chaotic under layers of paint. During this session I began practicing the drawings almost as a warm up. The point is to focus your mind to feel the lines with your eyes. Your eye and hand become one. However, it was the next step that created the uniqueness in this series, after painting over the practice session with a layering of paints and colors, I began the Blind Contour Sketches again. A multitude of portrait sketches over the background. Many of them over and over, using the same photo image as my model. I am never actually looking at the paper while I am drawing, only at the model in my photograph. I become consumed by the lines, features, and lighting in my mind’s eye. As Ester came to be, she was nameless, but very quickly she emerged from the painting on her own. She unfolded her story like the layers of paint underneath her.
As I painted, my thoughts began layering over each other. I thought of each persons unique journey in their one life and what ancestral foundation allowed that person to stand on the shoulders of their past. Something about this paintings simple lines and her proud head tilt shaped the narrative of the fictional story I heard her speak. Two books bubbled to the surface of my thoughts.
“The Warmth of Other Suns,” Isabel Wilkerson
“The Hill We Climb”, Amanda Gorman
And two favorite quotes quickly appeared, like dominoes lining up at the front of my thoughts,
“I am bound to them though I cannot look into their eyes or hear their voices. I honor their history. I cherish their lives. I will tell their story. I will remember them for I am the result of the very love, struggle, sacrifice, and journey of thousands.” – Unknown
“We are braver and wiser because they existed, those strong women and strong men… We are who we are because they were who they were. It’s wise to know where you come from, who called your name.” – Maya Angelou
My thoughts drifted to the music in my studio, by a folk musician and storyteller, a Kentuckian, a cellist, Ben Sollee. I finished Esters's simple details.
‘Some people just see a pile of junk. They don't know that it's pieces, pieces of you.’
Take a listen to set the mood, Ben Sollee, “Pieces of You”
My mind wanders. You know how you can walk through an antique shop or a thrift store, looking at all the trinkets? You think to yourself, where does it all come from? Little relics that once held meaning to someone. Relics and pieces of lives once lived, with stories attached, and now discarded.
Whose shoulders am I standing on that got me to this point in time? What stories were not passed down instead of the ones that were? I cling to my family’s Scottish stories. I cling to my German, Irish, and English stories too. A multitude of family artifacts and secrets. I am awed that someone from a parallel world of the past touched each relic; treasured them and passed them to the next. Handwritten letters from the war to a loved one. A postcard from a Scotch Granny to a young Grandson who has sailed alone to Nova Scotia. My German Grandfather’s prized crystal ice cream bowls from his employer. My Irish Grandmothers little collection of miniature tea sets, My English Granny’s little ceramic ducks. Each relic holds a story that is passed to the next. And when it is no longer passed, that memory and all that it holds will cease to exist.
I think that Ester wonders too.
“Ester”
“Ester feels the morning sun’s warmth as she lifts her face in prayer. Each ray is a kindred spirit reaching deep into her core to remind her of her beginnings. Empowering her to stand tall upon the shoulders of her family. To climb for the heavens with grace and strength. So many descendants woven into the foundations of her one small life. Pieces of a larger quilt that she must strengthen, color, and build upon.”
Painting size 9x12
Matted to fit an 16x20 frame
Frame not included
“Ester” is one in a series called "Abstract Ladies with Stories". This 9x12, original painting, on 115# acrylic paper, comes packaged for protection in a 16x20, white, single mat, with backing and sleeve. My paints and embellishments are of the highest archival quality to ensure the longevity of this work of art for years to come.
Each creation that I present to the world is a labor of love with a unique story that evolved with many studio hours and underlayers of paint. Building it, shaping it, and embellishing it with a variety of mediums.
“Ester” is for sale. It would be an honor to have her tell her story to your guests.
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