Hot Dogs and Red Paint

My mom loved hotdogs. A month after my dad passed, Keith and I took her to Dallas Hot Wieners, a charming little eatery in Saugerties, NY. A hotdog had made her smile that day. Afterward, we walked to Emerge Gallery.

Oddly enough, I created the image below in 2017, several years before Covid. This painting had been part of a group show, “Primar(il)y Red,” Emerge Gallery, Saugerties, NY.

“At the end of 2023 Emerge Gallery closed its physical space in Saugerties, NY, but continued hosting group shows virtually through the gallery shop on Artsy.net. The on-line shop offered a platform for the works of Hudson Valley artists to be viewed and purchased by collectors throughout the world.”

Can’t Remember Why I Painted This

Can’t recall what was going through my head in 2016 when I created this image.
I wish I could remember.
This piece once vaguely reminded me of John Baldessari’s artwork in the 1980’s—placing bright adhesive dots on random faces in photographs.
Since last year, the mask-like shape and those sad brown eyes have taken on a life all their own.

harvest moon secrets

who are you?

maternal nightmares

scary baby masklittle witch babies and tormenting black skies
gusting wind
long dark dresses swinging like death bells

a frail newborn with antlers growing
crying out as it tries to lift its weak neck
ocean-deep in salted sweat
those early months

panicking…

a pink infant
without bony deciduous growth
or skull-sunken cheeks

seventeen Halloween moons gone by since,
those first seconds
one more fall harvest
until her
perfect little face departs

dreaming…

scary baby mask, mixed media rendered a few weeks back…
the first time I was pregnant: during the first trimester, I had many bizarre dreams–some were nightmarish, others surreal like Dali paintings…my oldest is now 17 and college planning is on, lots of positive dreaming 🙂