Hmmm. Chickens are known to be indecisive. Should I cross the road? Or not? Now? Or later?
Years ago, I was talking to my friend who was an extraordinary painter, and she was agonizing over having so little time to paint. She worked at a job for a close relative at no pay, which she really enjoyed, but it took away her time and freedom to think and paint. (Most artists spend as much or more time thinking as they do actually applying paint to canvas.)
She simply couldn’t make up her mind to abandon her job to devote full time to her real passion. Which reminded me of the chicken. Should I? Or not? Now? Or later?
I begged her to go back to her studio. “Paint full time!”, I pleaded. You need to do this for yourself. Or else it’ll drive you nuts. (I wanted to say that, but didn’t.)
She chose to stay with her unpaid family job and painted only occasionally on weekends. When the family member retired and she had time to paint, it was too late. Dementia had already begun to spin cobwebs in her brain and she lost interest in her art.
The Chicken Series began when my friend was still working for her relative at an unpaid job. She saw this painting, “The Liberating Effect of a Momentous Decision” but she never knew her plight was the inspiration.
Another friend, a writer trapped in a sad marriage, couldn’t make up her mind to abandon her spouse who refused to work. That situation inspired another chicken painting and several more were influenced by real and imagined events.
So, for me, that’s often the way a new series begins: a friend’s dilemma, a character in a short story, a news article, a family situation. My paintings are narrative, often based on something real, but translated as pure fiction in my work. It’s not my practice to explain the meaning of my art; rather, I hope it stirs up stories of real and imagined happenings in the lives of the viewers.
