Bewildered

Tonight's painting BEWILDERED, along with last night's piece, PLANETARY PINCH are listed on eBay. I don't usually list my art there, as I have other venues to sell my art, but right now, I have art, and it all isn't out and about in places to be seen, and I figure that at the very least, different people will see it on eBay, and maybe someone will say I HAVE TO HAVE THAT. As the old adage goes, "you can't win if you don't play."

I also look at it as a way to get my artwork out for the world to see at the very least. Pretty cheap advertising I say! And, if I make a few people chuckle, or it brings to them a memory or reaction, then that is part of the joy of making art.

This piece is titled "Bewildered". Painted on location at Wilderstein, a historic site outside of the town of Rhinebeck that has a view of the Hudson River. Painted in acrylic on a 5 x 7" canvas panel, and collaged with an antique Victorian die cut, the little girl representing me, but oddly enough looking like the late great Lady Di.

Most of my life I have been in love with the Hudson River Valley and visited it since I was a toddler. At 12 I moved from the hustle and bustle of Long Island, to be plopped in the middle of the Catskill Mountains. It was a lonely life, I lived far from any children my age, and maintained my sanity with hikes through the woods and into the fields to pick berries and flowers, write poetry, read, or sketch. Back then I was bare-legged and barefoot, and there was no Lyme disease, though Agent Orange was said to be sprayed along the railroad tracks to defoliate them. On a rare occasion I might have one of the neighborhood boys with me, hoping to snatch a kiss or at least have some company. As I got older I found a few teens to hang with and we would hike to said woods, but with a party in our backpacks.

Ah..those were often sad and painful times, but they helped form who I am.

Oddly enough, I have sold several of my autobiographical pieces. I find them so personal that I have a hard time believing that someone would want to buy one, but perhaps it is that it resonates a memory deep within them. Sometimes I wonder if my autobiographical pieces are the best of all, because they come from a place deep within myself, and are brutally honest.

Off to bed. I worked all day, into the early evening, did an hour and a half of yoga, and am a bit achy.

Patti O Story