Blooming Pains II

"It's not how you start - it's how you proceed." 

 Brain Haycock, "Dharma Road" 

Blooming Pains II
36" square
acrylic, tissue paper, water color, ink, colored pencil
on wood panel

 I still need a few more hours with this piece - to sit on it, as it were and wait for it to tell me where I need to tweak it. I welcome any feedback!

Blooming Pains comes out of a message I once heard, given by the minister at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Nantucket, MA . I was living on Nantucket Island while working at the then Main Street Gallery as the assistant to the Director. His message talked about the experience of the flower or plant as it pushes out of the ground. How do we not know that it physically hurts the seedling to push out of ground? Perhaps when a bloom uncurls itself and opens it is like giving birth: painful beyond belief. Becoming ourselves whether a thirteen year old awkward youth or a middle aged questioning adult can be painful and yet very silent. I hope this piece speaks to this bursting open and becoming.