DUETS

A Lifetime of Memories, A Year of Painting
Life Takes Place in the Space of a Summer Day

A relationship requires two entities. The give and take that exists between the two entities is what determines that relationship. In the music world, a duet is composed of two parts…two instruments or two voices. The musical relationship between the two parts results in harmony. There are times when one voice may be momentarily featured, but never to the point where it becomes a solo, or where the second voice is dominated or subsumed.

During the pandemic when models were not available to use as references for my figurative paintings, I turned to nature as my subject matter. On long walks I studied the nature around me and found that in many ways, the natural world has achieved what humans long for, but rarely experience; and that is, harmony in relationships. In nature the seasons come and go in sequence and we know what to expect. Birds migrate in autumn and return in the spring. Leaves turn color in the fall, drop from the trees, and new leaves unfurl when the time is right. Tides ebb and flow on a regular basis. The sun sets and the moon rises and the earth continues to turn. There is a security in the understanding of nature’s cycle. Because of this basic stability, there is a harmony within nature. That isn’t to say that drama and tension don’t also occur in nature, but it is often sequential or predictable and it is generally followed by peace and stability. There is a rhythm to the natural world, and the relationships within it.

In this series of paintings titled DUETS, I use vignettes in the natural world as a metaphor for human relationships. They describe complex relationships between ourselves and other people (spouses and lovers, children, parents, friends); relationships between ourselves and other creatures (beloved pets, animals raised for food, hunting and game, pests); relationships between ourselves and the natural world (respect in some cases and domination in other cases); and possibly the most important relationship…the relationship we have with ourselves (head and heart, mind and spirit). These paintings invite the viewer to respond to nature as a beautiful arrangement of relationships (duets) that result in sustained balance and harmony.