First Breath

I used two of my favorite subjects for this piece: flowers and the human figure. This image invaded my mind one day, and what started as a simple line drawing took a life of its own, until it pretty much ran wild and started to paint itself on the canvas. It took quite a while to complete (over a month), in part because oil paints take a while to dry, but mostly because it's pretty big (48"X36").

This piece is about overcoming a particular difficult period of life. I like the metaphor of the lotus flower, this tiny little seed uses all the deposits at the bottom of its pool as nourishment and becomes a beautiful flower, shooting up from the bottom of darkness. I believe we can learn a thing or two from this little flower; we need to learn to overcome all the fear, pain and uncertainty we encounter in our paths, use these experiences to learn from them and to allow our spirit to grow, and as we overcome our mistakes take the final step: forgive others and more importantly, ourselves. Let go of everything and take our first breath, without fear or regrets.

This painting has a lot to do with my personal experiences, it's almost a self portrait (although I look nothing like the woman from the painting). It was after finishing this particular piece that I began doing more figurative work. The human body is capable of telling amazing stories with just one gesture and I am fascinated by the opportunity of capturing just a glimpse of that ability.