scene of our city Grand Rapids MI

Originally uploaded by bbmarie.

I have been working on this painting for a long time. I got it back from a gallery this summer and choose to begin working into it again. I have been up on the Wealthy Street overpass drawing and doing quick oil sketches many times this late summer and early fall. I feel as though I have married myself to this view and the relationship keeps getting deeper and deeper. I love the way it feels when I am up there and a large heavy truck rolls by and I feel the entire brige shake with the weight. I like it when people honk or otherwise call out some encouragement. I love it when art rises up out of the streets. Somtimes I wonder if the process of this painting and the painting itself could be a prayer for this city for it to flourish and to be blessed.

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woman with mirror and bird

Originally uploaded by bbmarie.

This is the night before our Family Art Show. We have really worked hard getting ready for this one. It can be stressfull doing a show but it is also exciting. Something happens to our house when we fill it with art and take time to arrange everything. It is a little like what the kitchen feels like when you come home from the farmer’s market and you have heaps of fresh fruit and vegtables laying on the counter.

The painting of the girl holding a mirror in one hand and a bird in the other is one of the new pieces that you will see if you stop by this weekend. You might wonder why she is holding a bird and a mirror. What is the connection? I like a picture to be haunting. When listen to a Leonard Cohen song. They hang around in with you a long time because of the way the songs make sense in your heart but not really in your head. Some times art works better when there are a few things “wrong”.

Have you ever noticed that just before you embark on an important event you are assailed by all kinds of fears of possible failure. I have this alot. I can feel it wanting to grind away at me tonight. I am choosing to be hopefull tonight and in the words of my wife Brenda’s hooked rug, I am “Expecting Good Things”.

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