Liquid Oculus

During (our kitty) Bun’s various health ordeals, my painting did indeed have to go on. I’m trying to create as much work as I can over the summer in preparation for my one-woman show at the end of August. Honestly, even though my numbers are in pretty good shape, I still fear that I won’t have enough paintings to fill the gallery’s two floors. So I paint every day. The above painting is going to be my last Burano painting for a while. Those have been a blast, but I want to focus on smaller still-life paintings over the next few weeks.

I asked Jeff what he thought I should call it, and he responded immediately with my initial idea, Under the Bridge. But that seemed too obvious, and it caused the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ song to begin looping through my head–and it continues to do so. I didn’t want that to happen to viewers of this painting because maybe not everyone likes the RHCPs. The song is actually pretty important to me: it was playing on my car’s radio as I drove into Oregon, Illinois, to begin my art teaching career 18 years ago. (I keep track of things like that.) But I wanted something more original.

Jeff and I kept coming back to the fact that the composition of this picture, with its arching bridge, shadowy areas, and yellow-boat-focal point, kind of resembles an eye. You can see this more clearly if you look at this tiny version:

When I studied art history in college, I enjoyed learning about the Pantheon, a nearly 2,000 year-old structure that serves as the final resting place of Raphael and other legendary Romans. It’s an architectural marvel that featured the first hemispherical dome. At the top of the dome is a hole called an oculus, which is the Latin word for eye. This hole lights the Pantheon’s interior. The enormity of the dome is stunning when experienced in person. The oculus at its center seems impossibly bright, and the circle of sunlight travels around the Pantheon during the day.

My students were always curious about the Pantheon’s oculus–where does the rain go?–and it’s a great art history vocabulary word. I have always wanted to use oculus in a title, and today I finally got my chance. Sorry if Liquid Oculus sounds pretentious (Jeff maintains that it does), but I’m going with it. And naming paintings is hard!

The painting is 21″x29″, which is as big as I can manage on a standard-sized sheet of watercolor paper. The small squiggles of shimmery water on the right were not fun to paint, but everything else was, especially the yummy colors near the center. I really nailed that yellow boat, I’ve got to say. The painting contains one highly unusual detail–can you find it?

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Did you find her? A woman’s face was printed on the shiny tarp covering the boat in the lower-right corner, and I was happy to add her to the painting. I like how she appears to be gazing up at the bridge.

Lately I’ve been listening to podcasts as I work, and two in particular have provided me with laughs and fuel for this painting. I can’t recommend Julie Klausner’s How Was Your Week? and The Ronna and Beverly Podcast enough. These women will stun you with their quickfire wits and general awesomeness. I’ve incorporated some of Julie’s sayings into my own lexicon, such as “I’m done!” and so will you if you listen. I also like to think about making her favorite food, “Noodles, with cottage cheese and salt and pepper,” whenever Julie mentions it, which is just about every show. These podcasts have helped me cope with Bun’s problems, the stress of preparing for my big show, and this awful, awful heatwave. Definitely check them out.

I’m done!