Title:
Gigi Skipping on Driveway with her Grandmother and the Neighborhood kids
Artist:
Cynthia Van Leeuwen
Medium:
Painting - Oil On Wood
Price
Not Specified
Dimensions
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Description:
This is a little painting I did for my sister. This is her daughter, Gigi.
When I lived in Manhattan I would send Gigi presents. I bought her these coveralls and apparently she wore them happily for quite awhile. I was so touched when I heard that. My Mom had this picture and let me have a copy of it to paint.
I put the butterfly wings on her and filled them in with different images. They represents her freedom and happiness, that feeling of flying we can experience at times and enjoy to see in each other. The top left wing, for example is filled with an image of several monarch butterflies and the word, Thoth.
Thoth was the first Egyptian god I was turned on about. Discovering him was a profound experience for me. He is the god of so many cool things. Education, Science, Mathematics, and Language for example. He was key in creating the Hieroglyphic dictionary, creating the symbols, the techniques. I have learned so many things from him. Like how to make it more comfortable to sit for longer periods of time painting or whatever, by bending the left leg under to keep heart/blood flow open. The right leg is then bent with the knee near the chest. You see this pose over and over in hieroglyphs.
The text is from a magazine with an interview with a musician. This is the sub-text. I like how it corresponds to what feelings I was inspired by to paint. Gigi's thick shiny hair and the sweet look on her face as she happily skips in her comfortable clothes with her grandmother turning one end of the rope and the other, the neighborhood younger kids that my mother babysat playing too, the joy of the whole future ahead and it being anticipated with glee and welcoming. I love that.
I used an indigo in the background to signify to act as the third eye, the inner vision manifesting itself, holding it snuggly in place. I call this style of background an 'emotional ground' which is often me using up left over paint and energy with my fingers making the strokes. It gives a certain spontaneous aspect that I find exciting and even scary sometimes. In this painting, I also carved the words into the wet paint and then painted them in later.
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