Submersive/Submergency

This little color sketch was the seed to the

painting above, Submersive/Submergency.

Sometimes it is easier to allow the roots to

submerge and plant you firmly in your life. 

A little stability goes a long way.  I do like

the quality of roots in this detail (above), 

they are more like tentacles...

Botanical Imaginings:  A little ditty from my current sketch book.  She is a smaller and more shallow version of 'Submersion'.  In this scenario, the submerged self is less incumbered by deep roots or ties to the soil.  She is free to go about other gardens, check out new digs.  Her motto might be "what family tree?"

Alice in Blue:  I was intrigued with the color Alice Blue, and the gown everyone was singing about, "Alice Blue Gown" way back when.  It was the seed for this growth of independence in sketch.  Here, the character is in flight, part bird, part flower.  Again, no roots, she is away from the family tree that day.  But I notice she is quite bogged-down by her luggage of multiple eggs/seeds.  Maybe she will plant them in new gardens along the way.

What Big Eye-lids!   This is a tree sprite. She is part of the family tree that hasn't materialized as yet.  She is future growth and potential.  Trees have always been symbolically female when described in the mythological landscape.  They bear female attributes.  I think she has a maternal instinct with good intentions. She will probably bake some cookies and care for the seedlings.

   

 

This a Garden Dragon,  He is one of many dragon sketches I've drawn.  Dragons are symbolically guardians of treasure.  In this case, he is sleeping on the job!  He's been asleep so long that the garden has grown over top of him.  But, that's OK, there is no alarm.  In this garden, my family tree grows, and the jewels are safe.  He is more like a guardian angel, he's friendly.

Submersion:  A work in progress in the on-going series of the Family Tree.  This one is more or less a state of mind, my own.  Percolating in the soil, growing, emerging, hiding.  I am pretty much a hermit due to circumstances beyond my control, but more or less have formed my art at present.  You spend a lot of time alone when you create, it is good to know thyself, be content with who you are, and what you are becoming.  If it means sprouting a tree from your head, well, so be it, let it grow, bear fruit, seed and be pruned. (this is where God comes into the scene, pruning is best left up to the Big Guy, he knows what your best features are, and the best way to show the talents we have been gifted.  Besides, who wants to go around with a unruly tree on their head?)

        The Family Tree

The Family Tree is a series of paintings and drawings

that I have been composing for years.  I love to use

plants and flower images to 'stand-in' for my family

members.  Why do I animate plant life?  I pretty much

blame that on "Alice in Wonderland" and any number

of fairy tales.  One of my all-time favorites is "Thumbelina".

My primary family consists of five of us, mom, dad, brother,

me, and a sister.  I look at this like a snapshot in time when

we all still lived in a state of cohesion.  I've never figured

out which one is me, it changes.