Painting: Oil on Canvas

Painted: 2024

Size: 24” x 24”

Owner: In storage                                                                                                                                                          

Music Selection: “Paint it Black” by Rolling Stones

This is a very personal painting. I realize that this is not a very good work, but it was something that I had to do. A family I know was breaking apart. A woman that had been a mother and homemaker had to face life without her husband. The weight of this loss would have overwhelmed most people, but she pressed on day-by-day. She cried at night so her children would not see their dilemma. She had to push on to keep her family together. It must have felt like she was deserted in a desert where the thorns slashed at her flesh and tried to pull her down spiritually, physically, and emotionally. It would have been easy to simply lie down and let the earth swallow her up, but she had responsibilities, so she pressed forward. In the painting the sun burns the protagonist’s skin, yet she persevered. Too many women in this situation would get lost in drugs and alcohol or run into the arms of the first man they thought could bring them rescue. She chose to walk the difficult path and all I could do was to place her and the family in my prayers and paint the black times they were facing.