November's Greatest Gift

November’s Greatest Gift has layered meaning- born November 7th, in a sense I am the gift…but my personal birthday present from Mother Nature every year seems to be that miraculously, all the yellowjackets have gone to die or hide for the winter. The idea of painting a self-portrait for my first solo show was…daunting. My therapist, who is also an artist himself, was the one who suggested it, in order to sort through some feelings and yearning for growth: he wanted me to see myself in the life I choose to create. I’ll be honest, this is nowhere close to my favorite painting. The pictures my sister helped me take turned out to be stunning…but I set out to create a piece of fire, rage and renewal. How difficult it was to connect the feelings I wanted to the facial expressions and body language. I am no model, that’s why I’m grateful to all of you! So much was learned from this work, including a highlighted need to plan my paintings better. All lessons learned aside, the next self-portrait will be nothing short of amazing.