Surrender

January, 1996
Acrylics on Masonite
13.5”x 28”
Framed 19”x 33”

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Out of the Ashes Show - February 2004

Surrender felt to me like praying, like saying, “Yes, lots keeps happening, good and bad, and I’ll just keep on keeping on.” It even means faith. Like yoga it is about letting go – not forcing or controlling. Staying at your edge.

Journal 1/17/96

When I first tackled Afloat, I really only roughed it in and left it in frustration, grabbing a piece of masonite to start another. A figure soon emerged on her knees. It seemed like a yoga pose. Thoughts & life’s happenings crash on her shoulders like lightening. Her bowed head bears a feather or flame of some sort. A tree grows out of her heart chakra – it just had to. She kneels on a quilt or looks into a pool – just splashes of color really…..

This painting was the first to be framed differently and it was done that same spring that I painted it. It was definitely proof to me that the meaning could be magnified by the framing approach. The painting wasn’t much without it somehow.

Note 2024: sadly this painting was burned up in a house fire several years ago.

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