Positive Omens For 2010

There are signs of regeneration and renewal in the studio these days as a very confused dahlia is now in full bloom. Last summer we apparently forgot one of the dahlia tubers in the basement and we found it in the fall when we stowed away the ones we dug from the garden. In October I planted it in a pot and waited to see if it would come back to life and soon after I planted it small green shoots began to appear. It grew rapidly throughout the fall and after the Solstice when the days began to grow longer a tightly closed bud that had formed slowly began to open.

My self portrait is also beginning to bloom. After looking pretty sickly for a few days with only the under painting done, yesterday I began to paint in the next layer which I think is called the dead layer. I worked only on her face and learned a lot in the process about what I can and cannot do with the oil paints and how different they are than the dyes I am used to working with on silk. The dead layer is not terribly exciting but it certainly looks better than the first layer did with only the shadows painted in! Now she is like a bud beginning to open, not a fully opened blossom yet but the potential of her beauty is beginning to show.

Now the New Year is here, my studio has been thoroughly cleaned and rearranged (I found a lucky clover in the process), my confused dahlia has been resurrected, I am working with a new Dr in Southern Mass and am having very positive results with the new treatment I am on and I am finally taking the time to work on a painting that that I have wanted to do for years but never took the time to do it. I am surrounded by positive omens proclaiming that 2010 is shaping up to be a very good year!