Maiden Rock

Whew! What have I been doing after completing the big project (Betty’s Spaghetti book)? Taking a bit of a break!

I’ve been taking some time to purge through some personal and studio spaces and just take a little time for myself. It’s hard to believe that as much as I love creating, I needed to look up and see other things in the world again and reorganize!

While purging some things, I found this 1000 piece puzzle I bought which I started a couple days ago. This one was made for me! Color, color and more color! It was smooth sailing until this point!

I have also started another painting. Not opposed to using old canvases to repaint on, my sister had this overly sized one that she picked up at a thrift shop and had on her wall for a while. It’s so big it didn’t even fit in my HRV! Not that there is a ton of space, but I usually can get some decent size work into it.

For some reason, Maiden Rock, WI has been popping into my brain quite a bit. As I write this I realize that I think I now know what’s behind the overall idea for this painting which which is based on the state of our union and the idea of democracy which is a heavy topic to undertake.

Maiden Rock has two fold symbolisms; one is my personal connection to the area and the second the legend of Wenona (also known as Winona). My personal connection is because I lived in the on a farm located on one of the bluffs overlooking Lake Pepin and above the town of Maiden Rock. The freedom of that space carries many memories and because of my age at the time (early 20’s) everything was idealistic and hopeful and certainly free wheeling! The second relates to a legend that tells a tale of Wenona, the daughter of Chief Wabasha, who decided rather than marry a man who she didn’t love, she leapt off of the bluff now known as Maiden Rock. The connection of those two symbolically is where I am headed with this.

The canvas is large and because of it’s size and how I am approaching it, it will take some time to complete. As I don’t do a ton of figurative work and what figures I have (think Naked Waiter, Coffee Diver) are more illustrative and caricature like. Here I want to take on a little more realism, but incorporating my stylized brushstroke seen in some of my other oil paintings. Because of the subject matter, (central female figure with the bluff in the background) I’m reverting back to some life drawing skills and reworking the facial features to hold a strong but neutral look as to say, “where do we go from here?” Not an easy task. I’m also have been reading and looking at a book I own about Thomas Hart Benton. I’ve long admired his work, along with Grant Wood (American Gothic) and a lesser known American regionalist artist, John Steuart Curry. To get an overview, there is a decent entry about Realism on Wikipedia. The styles of Benton and Curry have always been inspirational to me since my college days after seeing a show of American Regionalists at the Old Carnegie Library in Bemidji. At that time it was used as a gallery before the Watermark Art Center was built.

I also applied for a State Grant, which I will know in a little over a month if that was accepted and awarded. If that happens, my focus will shift to that. In the meantime, I’m going to finish the puzzle, repair an oil painting, and work on this. And maybe hire a cleaning service. 🙂 Dawn