Spirit: Daughters and Dragonflies

Featured image: Hope

This work took on a life of itself. It wasn’t until I was working with the shirt and for some reason, adding turquoise to the color palette that I understood and accepted the piece as it wanted to be. Turquoise isn’t a color that I normally work with, but there it was. I wondered why I had chosen it now so I looked it up online. Besides the normal gemology stuff, turquoise is very symbolic for many cultures. According to what I found in my research, it is a stone that travels far back into history. Some believed that the stone had the profound power to protect. I laugh at that, the painting seemed to be protecting itself, “Enough, enough,“ it said. But turquoise has a tranquil energy, and some say it is associated with enduring love. I think I need to get some turquoise. Turquoise also represents calmness, serenity, peace of mind, mental clarity, intuition, joy, balance, strength, invincibility, wisdom, tranquility, protections, good fortune, and hope. Wow, I think I will use more turquoise, what an amazing color! It certainly makes a major statement in this work along with the orange background and red hat. The spirit of this work lies not only within myself and my history but also lies deeply in my daughter’s history. It is part of her foundation and her spirit, as it is mine. In the actual spirit of the work, there is no resemblance of my daughter except for some of the colors I used and except for the idea of daughters and dragonflies. Like the turquoise stone, it is the “idea” of this work. With both, there is enduring love. There is a peace of mind, balance, strength, invincibility, wisdom and yes, indeed like that day my daughter and I watched dragonflies emerge and dry their wings on the beach, it is filled with tranquility.