The Joy of In Progress

The most beautiful moments in the studio are often during the progress of a work.  A idea being refined, or often enough, redefined.  A work not quite there, but like a child, showing a spark of purity, of essence, ripening, maybe of necessity, but towards a never ending goal. Here are some works a present, and some, now completed, but in transition to that moment when it is done, it is good, and a point where it can only be taken further by the viewer.

    Here is my drafting table covered with a watercolor sketch and an oil in progress (my first in decades) for a window I am working on, and other set asides (inactive or in contemplation) reflected in a mirror.  

Above and below are pieces of a cut paper work, laid about seeking the correct color and overall position in the work.  The basis of the cutting is an emotional toiling to understand the human need to be free of violence, hatred and coercion. We all, like the biblical legends of the Hebrews, are all in search of a promised land, a land of milk and honey, a heaven on Earth.  Many of those seeking refuge know that everything promised in heaven is already here on earth. 

 And somewhere, in the here and now, that is possible.

 On the cluttered cutting table below lie pieces which show the nativity of past works--on now completed and on display until the end of the month at the Northeast Kingdom Artisans Gallery, 430 Railroad St., St. Johnsbury, VT.   The first few butterflies adorn The Green Man, a mythical who heralds the arrival of Spring, and two heads that would become the basis for "Finbarr, who lived by the sea and love to tell tales of fish and foreign lands", and "Flying to Bujumbura".