If you have been following my art for a little, you may have noticed a cute piggy showing up in a number of paintings recently.
I've always been tickled by many of the animals out there and of course you have seen sheep, a cow and a seal waving its flipper in my paintings. But Piggy is a little different, and as I paint, she is traveling with me. She has become my companion while dealing with this tense and crazy world we live in.
It all started with Piggy and her Red Balloon, which I painted at the confluence of a number of big and small events late 2020. She is a happy piggy, seeing the world moving towards vaccines against Covid-19. That is the big event. The small event is that we planted a Peony in our new planter boxes. And there she was... in her window of blue sky, with her happy red balloon...
After that, Piggy was quiet for a while, until she popped up in my dream... But she was not alone, she brought along her family in a magical dreamscape. And so, Piggy's Dreamscape was born in oil on canvas.
Piggy's Dreamscape was painted as we lived through what was almost a normal time in the midst of the pandemic. It almost felt like normal was back but soon after Piggy was happily dreaming in her dreamscape, the world broke down in chaos and war, while still suffering through this pandemic. And Piggy, like many others in our crazy world is asking WHY?
Piggy knows there is always a window of hope somewhere, but an unprecedented war unleashed in Europe did deflate her balloon... It was just too much to take in, and darkness drew over my painting.
As an artist, I do want to help to create hope and call out to those in need of support. So Piggy says Stay Strong to the people in Ukraine and expresses hope in true colors.
With Piggy says Stay Strong, I did do something very different with the canvas than I initially imagined. I had this idea of a vertical painting, but as I started and played around, I read all these stories in the news. Famine and increased bread prices are coming because Ukraine grows our wheat. And a completely different idea was born... now the two canvases are horizontal and I just love the two panel effect, with Piggy on one panel with her sunflowers and the balloon on its own canvas, connected - but not quite - with that string.
While the war rages on, and the pandemic doesn't seem to want to end, Piggy is a bit lost. But her hopes are up, and a vacation really energized her. So, here is Piggy in her latest painting: Piggy says Let's Go! Piggy is ready to venture back out into the world with her red balloon. Where are we all going, well, we'll have to walk onto that unknown path of life...
And the red balloon? Well, it is art, and so I am not going to tell you everything... the idea or meaning behind that red balloon is something you'll just have to imagine...
Till next time and, Piggy will return!
Christine
PS. Visit my store if you would like to own Piggy, but hurry up, 2 of the 5 paintings are already sold.
Commentaires