“Excuse me, there is a hare on my plate!”
Painting. Oil on canvas, 30x40”
I feel compelled to write about this painting as it is quite a departure from my usual. So, what’s up with this mad hare? As some of you know, last year I let go of my ‘normal” life to go looking for “I don’t know what”, “I don’t know where” - I figured I’d recognize it when I see it. Letting go was terrifying, but inevitable. It didn’t happen overnight; on the contrary, it was a few years of contemplation, a few months of agonizing and rationalizing, 5 minutes to give my notice, followed by bulging eyes and repeating “WTF did I just do?!!” under my breath for a few days. ...All followed by this sense of peace that I made the right decision to LEAP!
As I began my travels, I started “seeing” hares. They would appear in my doodles, dreams, and even in real life. Who knew observing your spirit animals “changing shifts” would be such an obvious process? I’ve always been a raccoon kinda gal. And then a doodle for a painting appeared: a mad hare leaping and crashing through tables covered with adult libations. “Why the beverages?” you ask. Well, another “big leap” happened for me two years ago: I quit said libations. I realized my creativity was coming from the place of darkness, I was stuck in a self perpetuating cycle, plus the whole romantic notion of a tortured artist made it feel “right”. Letting go of what started forming into an addiction to darkness led me to this bold decision to let go a year later as I vowed to find a way to access my inspiration from my pure being within. So here was this hare, a metaphor for life’s leaps, crashing my previous life.
Frankly, when I realized I did not have a canvas large enough to fit all the madness in, I also realized all of us have something we owe to ourselves to let go of. We set up this elaborate party of expectations for our life and when it all gets derailed, (and it always does!), we are crushed. And yes, some events in life are truly devastating, but some take you in unexpected directions to places you didn’t even know you wanted to go to yet! So here is this mad hare: among baby rattlers, weddings, divorces, birthdays, “get well” and anniversary balloons, celebratory feast, libations and a heap of confetti! It’s colorful, because change in all it’s unexpected nature doesn’t have to be gloomy; it can be pretty darn fun! Hence the wild colors. Poorly paraphrasing E. Tolle: “life’s greatest pain comes from the resistance to the present moment.” Enjoy the ride and leap with the hare!
Come check out this painting at the Untitled Gallery - the gallery I had a chance to start upon returning back to the US from my travels. Magic happens when we let go! See you October 5th, 6-9pm!