Artwork by Series

Imperious Intimacy

Intimacy based on subtle nuances, shared history, collective memory and innate understanding of another’s thoughts is imperious in its very nature. The “imperious” and special intimacy that can only be gained through time and intimate knowledge of another is interesting in its energy.  Is the trip to becoming intimate with another ever over, or is it a never-ending cycle of getting to know a new person as they grow and change? Is the soul a place of facts? Or is it a shadow of the day before and the day before that???  Is there an invisible existing reality in each of us??? Our own souls as intimate and entangled as they are with us the person may not even be clearly definable or understandable to us.  It is doubtful that the soul and spirit is a place of facts and this series explores that concept with text and birds on a wire. We perch on the wire of our own understanding of our own personal imperious intimacy and with the intimacy of those around us ready to take flight to the next level of understanding when ready.

Secrets

We submit to a type of death when gazing upon that which we should not.  Just as when we hold a secret we submit to a type of death because it is in the holding of the secret that ours live are forever altered and true freedom can never be attained. Nothing goes away and all changes with secrets.

A person with a secret is like a person with an object in their hand that they must conceal each moment of their lives.  The very nature of every movement and thought is altered. Depending on what the secret is and how it is held the impact can be very large or small. 

Transparency

Transparency; the place where the things you can’t fully remember and what you can’t forget collide in an awakening, and where the intersection of years brings you to clarity of moment, when the mirror of transparency appears, a personal transparency, where all is clear, understood and felt. Transparencies, when the one in the mirror and the one reflected are the same.

Love Locks and Promises

In Italy, there is a practice among lovers to connect a lock on a bridge and toss the keys in the water.  Once the lock is secured, the keys are tossed in the water, never to be retrieved.   This promise of love begs a question.  Can a relationship remain as constant and strong as this lock on a bridge?

Words are spoken that can never be taken back again.  This is part of human communication that has impacted human relationships since time immemorial.  The phrase “I love you” when spoken can never be taken back, just as the keys tossed in the water can never be recovered.  Three words forever change the two people within the relationship.  What if the other person can’t return the love, what if one or the other does not understand the love given, is frightened by it or is confused?  Locking ourselves together through eternity by voicing three words bares the soul, whether receiving or voicing those words. 

Games People Play

Does our essence determine how we enter the game?

Essence is the truth of what we are, what is our own: our latent and innate tendencies, our inherent gifts, our sympathies and antipathies.  Essence is what we are born with, but how does that essence affect how we play the game or if we even enter the game?

In “The Game” do we have moments of recognition, where we find our inner selves reflected in the outer world? Is this the moment when the game ends and authentic living begins? Are authentic people winners?

Sometimes we want to give up, run away and leave the game but the game is everywhere; leaving the game is leaving life itself. The game does not stop; night or day, the game continues.

It continues in many ways each day, including the possessions game, which takes over some lives and some cultures. The quest for more, the buying and accumulating, takes time from becoming an authentic person or interacting with authentic people.   Each possession we bring into our lives requires something of us and takes time away from relationships.  The game becomes more complex when possessions and people interact.

Flow

Using the fish to explore the concept of flow is a natural link.  The collective effervescence of fish moving together belonging to a group with concrete real existence is symbolic of humans absorbed in a task.  As humans we are most satisfied when we do something for the action itself rather than for some other motive.

The moments of flow can also be called a liminal moment; those moments apart from time when you are gripped, taken, when you are so fully absorbed in what you are doing that time ceases to exist.  “The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult or worthwhile.” p.3 Flow by Mihaly Csikzenthmihalyi  It is the autotelic moments in life those of self goal that are meaningful. 

Dangling Carrots - Fame, Fortune or Happiness

Self-motivation, understanding of one’s own place in the universe and social responsibilities as a member of a population must be balanced for growth to be measured in more than just an economic sense. There is duplicity inherent in the image of a carrot dangling from a stick.

The deliberate deception may encourage forward progress of an animal, but is unlikely to work for very long in the real world.  Humans in search of fame, fortune and happiness will chase a transparent dangling carrot that is seen by no one but the pursuer.  To reach fame, fortune or happiness, the mirage that is constructed in the mind of the aspiring individual will block out enough of reality to overcome obstacles to the goal. 

There is no concrete definition of “making it”, each person’s defining moment of “making it” is different.  Fame, fortune and happiness are never fully attained in all people’s eyes. Each person reaches for his own dangling carrot, which is a completely intangible and sometimes illogical destination.  What is duplicity to some may be satisfaction for others.  It may be necessary to continue to chase more elaborate and new dangling carrots in order to continue to strive and not stagnate as a person both spiritually and physically.

Touch

The tulip provides an artistic way of exploring various types of touch, and the impact that touching has on our lives.   A touch can give us a concentrated sense of life, an energy transfer like nothing else can.  The touching of souls, minds or hearts that are seeking contact with another is life altering.

Connection

This series explores connections in my own world from the wisdom of a professor, to the innocence of a child that I teach each person changes who I am and who I will become.  The unconditional acceptance of a person allows a connection or a common thread of interest to grow and to become a strong bond and time and distance does not sever.

Sir Francis Bacon said that the worst solitude is to be destitute of sincere friendship. Without connections to other people and their emotions we are destitute

Lives Overlapping

There is a trust in some people that blurs differences and blinds prejudice. Humankind pauses and looks in before entering, as though trust has been lost from natural design. Windows provide distance and a perceived involvement, yet the viewers do not know what the situation is until they participate fully.

Windows allow people to look out, but they also allow people to look in. Why do we look in? Do we want to see that other people are not so different from us? If there were windows on people that allowed us to see into their intentions, motivations, aspirations or potential, humans would we understand each other better. We install windows on superficial items like cars and houses, yet we cover up what is most important and don’t realize that our lives are very similar and overlap in many ways.

Lives overlap all over the world. We hang out our laundry to dry metaphorically and physically and hope that the overlap with others with bring a sense of companionship and understanding.

Trapped

Many times in life we try to trap or hold onto something longer than we can. We try to control scents, people, moments and feelings.  We try to trap moments through photography and smells through perfume.  The perfume jars are a symbol for this attempt to trap the scents of nature in a jar to use later.  When that bottle is opened and the perfumed is applied, the scent is lost to the air.

A perfume lingers after the person wearing it has departed.  The scent may be in the room, on a piece of clothing, or on a pillow they used.  This evokes notions of enduring strength and remembrance.  Perfumes thus symbolize memory.

Standing Alone

Monique uses tulips, a common flower to represent human emotions, from the fragile to the ferocious.  Fields of  flowers like crowds of people, often make us less aware of  the individual characteristics and nuances each posseses.  Each painting is ground level view  focusing on a single flower among an arrangement that personifies an intense human emotion.  As in a family, everyone appears similar yet will feel, respond and experience situations in a totally unique way - in essence standing alone.

Time marches toward confluences of harmony and conflict. The shaded images in black and white represent loss of innocence through aging.  The color works toward peace and a better way to handle conflict.   Major events are highlighted in color, the everyday tasks blend into shades of black and white.

Fragile

Those who suffer due to life’s unfortunate accidents can suffer an anathema that is not of their choosing.  As the outcome of each individual decision forces the direction of the next decision, events play out in a multitude of opportunities and challenges.  There is a delicate balance between stability and change that is tipped by circumstance and chance.  The survival of the fittest is completely negated through errors in judgment, a lack of understanding or the ever-present twists of fate. 

Our world, our own lives, our health, our relationships and our safety are all fragile.  At any given moment something could happen that could change the very nature of our lives and our existence in it.   We can be shaken out of our comfortable lives through the unconscious acts of others in a split-second.  We surround ourselves in seemed luxury and safety.  Our automobiles are a shell that we take for granted and trust, yet they can be shattered in a moment through all too common accidents as a result of lack of attention or care.

Treasured Hurts

There are hurts we hang on to that are re-lived.  Memories hide for a long time and can surface again to cause new pain. The vessels in these paintings represent human beings.  People search to understand themselves and it is their treasured hurts that have made them who they are or stopped them from becoming who they want to be.

Abundance

To have abundance is to recognize there is an oversupply.  It is the acquisition of material goods beyond what is needed.  There are many choices to make to fill our days and it is necessary to recognize when enough is enough.  However, each possession collected demands something of us and this demand is often time.

A major factor in the increased stress in many lives can be attributed to abundance.  The over-indulgence in gathering possessions is an attempt to measure success.  The challenge for modern society is to build abundance in life of non-material possessions and recognize their value.  Stress results from all types of abundance and equilibrium is established when there is a balance between needs and wants.

Naked Soul - Working Mother

The series explores a working mother’s place in society from conception of the child to the reality of living the day-to-day life of a working mother.  The exhaustion, the fear, the anger, the tension and the jealousy are part of the experience of the woman in the series.