Vampires

Happy Halloween 

from our coven to yours

Giveaway!!

I LOVE giving things away!  This one has some rules:

1. You have to be at my show to collect your prize.*
2. You must have a shoe size of 38 european (7/8).

Ok, that's all.  Make a sweet comment and you are in the drawing.  Sorry if you are far away, I'll make it up to you some day soon.

*David Ericson Gallery

418 S. 200 W.

Salt Lake City, Utah

Opening Reception

Friday, October 19, 2012

6-9 pm

Old Rinkrank Decoded

The Glass Mountain

16"x12"

This is a list of symbols and their meaning used in my Old Rinkrank series of paintings:

• Yellow represents youth and innocence and unhindered hope as found in our heroine's dress at the start of her journey and again in the ribbon used to release Old Rinkrank's beard from the window.
• The Glass Mountain is our perceived hopes and dreams.
• Old Rinkrank symbolizes fear that holds us captive, preventing our potential greatness.
• Red, whether fully exposed or covered and protected by sweaters or armor, is for vulnerability.
• Dishes and Beds represent the everyday things that busily keeping us from progressing.
• Gray and sweaters are for pondering; quiet on the outside while actively engaged in our inner landscape.
• The Ladder is a tool to work our way out of a fix, to get us back on our mountains.
• Armor is for determination, protection, and strength.
• The Landscape is stylized as a tribute to Arthur Rackham, illustrator of the Brother's Grimm and other fairy tales and stories.

When she was at the top she opened the window
12"x16"
oil on panel

I Have Washed your Dishes, I Have Made your Bed

I Have Washed your Dishes, 

I have Made your Bed
18"x12"
oil on panel

How do you transcend your everyday norm to achieve the extraordinary?  The tale of Old Rinkrank is a parable that illustrates a method to overcome the failures and hinderances on your path of progression.

Before she had even recovered from her fall off of the glass mountain whose summit held the best of hopes and dreams she could imagine, Old Rinkrank found the princess and offered to let her keep house for him in exchange for preserving her life.  For years she remained in his house, washed his dishes, made his bed, and began to grow old.  Till that apocalyptic day when she locked all the doors and refused to let Old Rinkrank in.

Do you have an Old Rinkrank?  The thing that kept you from dusting yourself off after a fall and climbing back up the mountain.  Something that held you in place, going about your everyday motions long enough that you almost forgot your goals, hopes, desired outcomes.  I think Old Rinkrank is fear.  Fear of failure, afraid that you'll get your hopes up so high that the disappointment of the fall will hurt too much.  Fear of success, what if you get there after blood, sweat and tears and it's not all that great.

My favorite lesson I have learned from pondering on this tale is that it is not the pinnacle of the mountain where efforts come to fruition.  For one thing, the mountain peak I set my sights on years ago is anywhere from a hardly significant stepping stone on the way to a bigger better summit,  to an irrelevant hill I passed by on my true path.  The essence of progression is consumed from the wild berries gathered along the trail as you hike.  Berry by berry, step by step, small and simple is what brings you to a state of the extraordinary.

Mother Mansrot

Mother Mansrot

16"x12"

oil on panel

Every morning my three girls and I meet on our back patio for fifteen minutes of yoga. I like to provide a visualization to take with us as we go about our day. A recurring theme is to internalize a breeze or imagine a river that will carry us from one task to the next, never stagnant, always flowing, all day long. This means physically moving the body with fluid energy through their doings, also keeping thoughts flowing and evolving from one idea to the next.

In Mother Mansrot our figure may be sitting absolutely still, but there is a river raging through her head. Her thoughts are churning and moving. This piece represents one of the most poignant moments in the Old Rinkrank tale. As Brothers Grimm tales often do, the story makes a jump without inner dialogue or explanation. After years of being held captive by Old Rinkrank, and doing his work day in and day out...”Then once when he was out, and she had made his bed and washed his dishes, she shut the doors and windows all fast, and there was one little window through which the light shone in, and this she left open.” After this she makes her big escape. Life’s path can be drastically changed in just a brief moment, with just a small bit of action. What is the prelude to a moment like this?

Sunday

On this Sabbath day, may your burdens be light and your soul filled with comfort and peace.

Miniature for Howard Mandville Gallery's Small Works Show in Kirkland, Washington.