Making the Unknown Known

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“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing–and keeping the unknown always beyond you.” ~ Georgia O’Keeffe

When I started this blog I wasn’t exactly sure what my vision was, but through it, I’ve noticed a theme emerging in my understanding of my work. I am caught in a tension between journey and adventure, seeker and explorer, linear paths and winding ones.

Paintings have both a beginning and an end. Careers move forward even as they twist and turn, backtrack, and stop. I am seeking something specific although it always leads to detours and unexpected ventures that seem to challenge the original quest all together.  

I’ve painted this peacock– walking a line but looking back– a thousand times. It strikes me as powerful and still a little hesitant, bold but still unsure.

What I don’t know– about life and about painting– is so big, so overwhelming that I wonder what the point is at all. And yet somehow these tiny pieces, these infinitely small and therefore seemingly irrelevant understandings, seem to breathe life into the bigger unknowns.

Painting, the physical act, requires me to look back, even as I move forward.

This painting and several other peacocks will be part of my next website release coming soon.

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