Behind The Scenes of a Painting

Acrylic, charcoal, oil. 69 x 40 inches

“LADY MADONNA…Who Will Pay The Rent?” depicts the story of the Goddess in every woman rising above the challenges fate brings. War. Violence. Famine. Predators. Abuse.  All universal challenges, no matter one’s race, creed, or nationality. I started painting Lady Madonna, before having brain surgery to remove a benign tumor on my optic nerve. When I went in for surgery, I had painted her lying in a pool of blood, defeated and dying. 

When I came home from the hospital—grateful that the surgery was successful—I had a deep desire to bring her back to life. I turned her around, and lifted her from the prone position, to show she rose above it all.  I still struggled, however, painting one day then whiting it all out, the next.  Finally, her serene Botticelli face came to life.  From that point on, the giant puzzle that can be a large-scale painting started to be solved, area by area.  The colors, layer after layer, started to vibrate with intense emotion.  The predator in the painting grasps at her foot with one hand and tries to touch her with the other while his tail (which changes into a snake) twists around her.  But in my new, empowering version, she is out of the predator’s reach.

She gazes down at her newborn baby wrapped in bloody blankets, whispering,  “We are finally safe.”