Found

The words read: It can take years and years to find the heart you hid so well. Find your truth. The world needs you.

Oh my is this painting full! So very many layers, colors, textures, thoughts, feelings. It is a complex story of healing and recovery. Told in bold colors and symbolic forms. A heart that reaches out from behind many many walls. This piece continues my interest in the combination of language and fine art. In tiny letters, I have added three phrases to the room around the warm heart. They read, "It can take years and years to find the heart you hid so well. Find your truth. The world needs you."

For many years, I sleepwalked carefully around old and sensitive wounds. But I did not really exist. The years I have spent - and will spend - rediscovering my soul are the most important years of my life. That work of remembering and reinterpreting my past has allowed me to create a beautiful future. And to give my heart freely in my art. I am hopeful that Found will be a warm reminder to some fellow recovered child out there that the work is worth it. The whole world benefits when people live authentically, deeply, with love.

How Found was created.... This was an elaborate piece to produce and I worked on it over an extended period of time. I applied modeling paste and then carved it up with dental tools to create all sorts of ridges and grooves to serve as protective walls around the heart. Then I applied countless washes of color sometimes blotting up bits of them, sometimes rubbing through them, sometimes scraping parts off or scuffing them up. I carved out the heart shape before using tiny detail brushes to paint it. Then I added several important lines and highlights and finally the words.

(The image continues around the sides allowing you to display your new painting unframed. This is a digital photo. The scans above are more accurate.)

This piece was painted on a wooden board created specifically for use by artists. It has a recessed slot in the back allowing you to hang it flush with the wall. The sides of the board have been painted as well so that this piece would look wonderful displayed unframed either directly on the wall or on a small, decorative table-top easel. ***NOTE: I can include a new black, wood, mission-style display easel with your order for just $10.00. Please email me and let me know if you would like one.