This painting is pretty large, 36" x 36". I had high hopes for it, and I think it turned out. It is such a mystery when i start a painting if I will be able to get it to the point it is imagined in my head. Once in a while (not very often) it actually surpasses my intentions. This is one that I had to put away for a few weeks and figure out if I needed to add anything to it. Then I cut out and added the paper birds nailed to the wall and pinned on the lapel. I think I will revisit the paper birds in other paintings. I actually got really excited about that prospect.
The title came out of my thoughts about raising my 3 girls. They are experiencing so much and processing so much at their young ages. I know that a lot of what I knock myself out to show them and teach them they will never remember. So, am I doing it for them or am I really doing it for myself and to bring joy to myself? (i.e. disneyland...) If they are not going to remember it, then why do it? It occurred to me that I don't have very many memories of when I was 6. So I am actually re-experiencing my childhood by being around them. I am literally seeing and experiencing what it is like to be a 6 year old little girl, a sort of reincarnation. It hit me one day as I was watching muse #2 gathering pinecones and leaves to make a nest for the birds that I could be watching myself and it felt a little "out-of-body". So if that makes any sense to you, I feel like I am being given the gift of seeing my own childhood in a way. What a gift.
