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"A Look Back" 8" x 10" Oil on Canvas
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From my earliest memory, the metaphor of the sheep has been embedded in my brain. There's no escaping a metaphor that reaches that far back. There's no redefining it or rationalizing it: it continues to live in one's psyche in its original form.
Perhaps it was the unconscious influence of that metaphor that deepened my experience visiting a local sheep farm back April. Even though I went to watch the shearing, that's not what made the deepest impression on me. What impressed me was how after the shearing, each sheep made its way back to the pasture without any supervision. And second to that, the flock's need to identify the newly sheared sheep before becoming comfortable with its re-entering their company.
The first image catching my attention was one of these sheep. As I was shooting pictures of his returning to the pasture, he turns his head and looks at me. That's the image that stuck with me. That's the image that made the deepest impression, that became a new version of an old metaphor.
During the longest summer I remember, I have kept a brush moving by doing therapy paintings, many little paintings I have no intention of signing or showing. This little piece is the transition between those therapy paintings and getting back to the painting process. It's a metaphor all unto itself.
