Painting
I had a teacher in grad school, Mary Webster, and she would tell us that the painting was in front of us, always ahead. It wasn't until later that I better understood what she meant or how it applied to my work. I catch up to the meaning of my work months, years or a decade or two later. That's the good stuff—the art that has layers of meaning that speaks to you. So it's there all the time, waiting for you to discover yourself.
I call this painting Punch because of the boxing glove shape of the form taking up most of the compositional space. I drew it with an indigo oil crayon and the rest with oil paint. It was a spontaneous piece, and it painted itself, really.
In January of 2023 I was punched hard in the shoulder several times by a fellow pedestrian. The assault was sudden, fierce and deft—this ninja, a short stocky woman in her 50's. The element of surprise still shocks me to this day and the pain she inflicted is hard to unfeel or forget. This painting is about that.