Profound and Ridiculous

There is a fine line between profound and ridiculous.  This painting explores just that.

       Jezebel is surrounded by all these tiny houses. Tiny little homes; ideas of home; do you ever really feel at home? If you’ve lost your home, can you actually find it again? Her wary attention is both comical and deeply reflective.  We had just moved to our new home in rural Virginia when I took this picture of her in our new kitchen.  It struck me that the linoleum was the exact same classic pattern as in our kitchen in the old house hundreds of miles away.  She grew up in our kitchen playing catch down the subsequent hallway~ charging up and  down it as a pup and eventually making it each way in three easy strides as a beautiful full grown dog. I wondered if seeing this exact same floor pattern in our new place, did Jezebel recognize it? Did it reflect home to her?  Does she even experience such notions?  Her expression just got me thinking…and laughing…

      I turned the diamond pattern into a house pattern and traced the history of homes and houses (for there is a true difference) back to my own first home as a child.  That kitchen floor was dark slate stones which my parents had patterned and cemented down themselves. It held no mercy for any dropped glass or plate, but it was a cool relief on small bare feet during summertime. That first house was somehow a home, and perhaps because of my Jezebel, so is this one now.

I am grateful to say that this painting is on view through to the end of January, at 2nd Helpings in Roanoke, VA.   www.2ndhelpings.org This art gallery is part of a rescue mission and a portion of all sales are used to help the homeless in the local area.