Beginnings

Beginning

I made this painting last year, and as I'm sure you know already, my work often contains layers of allegory within the images. My titles allude to what I intend my images to mean, and unless prompted I often don't explain it with any more than those few words of the painting title. This painting is very close to my heart because the "beginning" that I was thinking about when I was working on it was my own children's beginning. Both of them growing inside their own little orbit or bubble. This is both literal, as they grew inside my womb, but also more about their childhood development, as they grow and develop into the people that they are meant to be, until they are strong, vibrant and fully autonomous, ready to fly away. It is not lost on me as I parent that I am really preparing my children to eventually (hopefully many years away) live without me, even though I can't conceive of such a time and part of me likes to think that they will always need me. This duality of joy and sorrow, love and loss, is a constant that I try not to forget in my work and life. I feel like this remembering makes the staggeringly beautiful times all that much more beautiful and captivating.

Yesterday, my family experienced one of these great joys, profound and stunningly beautiful. My dear brother and his lovely wife welcomed their first baby....this magnificent little girl Beatrix, born in England where they live.

I have been transfixed by the pictures of her, gazing at them, trying to discern which parts of her I recognize. So far she looks so markedly like both my brother and I at birth, rosy with a full head of blond hair.
I am aching to meet her, but we won't be able to hold her in person until we visit England this coming August, 4 long months away!
Until then I am just relishing this feeling of joy at their new beginning as parents, these times don't came along often.
Welcome to the world little Beatrix!