NM Paintings 2018 > Whistling in the Windy Dark

Whistling in the Windy Dark - left turn
ink, acrylic, and tempera on paper
48" x 36"
February 2018
Whistling in the Windy Dark - left turn - detail
ink, acrylic, and tempera on paper
48" x 36"
February 2018
Whistling in the Windy Dark - right turn
ink, acrylic, and tempera on paper
48" x 36"
February 2018
Whistling in the Windy Dark - right turn - detail
ink, acrylic, and tempera on paper
48" x 36"
February 2018
Study for Whistling in the Windy Dark
ink, acrylic, and tempera on paper
14" x 38"
February 2018
Study for Whistling in the Windy Dark - detail
ink, acrylic, and tempera on paper
14" x 38"
February 2018

DECADES – TEN-SIDED WALL OF YEARS – WHISTLING IN THE WINDY DARK

These paintings started with the idea of representing ‘lost time.’

Perhaps many of us – whether we care to admit it or not – have in our back-log a decade, perhaps more or less, that we can chalk up for any number of reasons as ‘wasted’ or ‘misspent.’

Sometimes these years of searching have eventually lead to circumstances that we now find fulfilling or that at least feel constructive or useful to us, and perhaps others as well. It is often the case that what has been formative to these more fruitful circumstances is exactly that time spent in a kind of vague meandering of confusion or struggle.

But now we have recovered and have a new sense of balance that has in no small way been delivered to us after and because of a decade long travail with its attendant discontents.

How do we measure time when we are looking at time passed? Is it some form of ‘whistling in the dark’ for fear of revisiting part of us we have buried? Or is the entire exercise just so much ‘whistling in the wind’ since what is past cannot be changed?

Can we instead review ourselves by ‘whistling in the windy dark’ and come to peace and understanding that will carry us into the future?