Sunday, May 8, 2011

Green Folds


Green Folds
Oil on board, 8.5" x 7"
$180 plus $8 shipping in U.S.

For check payment or other arrangements, email don@dailyartwest.com


A belated but heartfelt Happy Mother's Day!

I want to offer a special bow to all you moms who lovingly care for kids, husbands and homes, while somehow finding time and energy to pursue your passion for making art. If that's not enough, you likely hold down a job outside the home to make ends meet.

Maybe you're one of the many who have deferred your art-making dreams while nurturing others in your life. You wait until the children are grown; until you retire; until countless other demands on your time and energy are met. Only then will you feel free to "indulge" yourself as an artist. When that well-deserved time finally comes, I hope your cup runs over with creative joy.

I know something of the creative impulse. It is insistent, a gnawing urge that demands expression. What I can only imagine is how it must feel to constantly suppress that urge, or partake of it in borrowed snippets of time between other responsibilities. An artist's wealth is measured in time, the saying goes. I've been blessed with time to work at my art. Part of that good fortune is an accident of birth; traditional roles in our society make it easier for men to follow their stars. Others have sacrificed so that I can do this, none more than Brenda--my beautiful, hard-working, loving wife and devoted mother of our three children. It's a gift I can never repay.

6 comments:

Dar Presto said...

I'm positively transfixed by the transparent shadows in your work, Don. I'm enjoying the fabric studies very much. I tend to collect textiles, but not make anything from them, as I'm content to gaze at a pile of color, texture, and possibility.

Thank you for sharing your gracious insight. I'm sure the mutual support between you and Brenda is the foundation of a great life together.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your sweet tribute to women. I'm enjoying the studies of folds/colors, but as a fabric collector/quilter, I want to know what kind of fabric?? What fiber content?? What type of fabric drapes most gracefully? Inquiring minds want to know. :-)
Anne Thrower

Sheila Vaughan said...

Don, what a kind and generous thing to say. I am sure many male artists think the same way but few would speak it out loud. Despite having formally "retired" I am, as you know, one of those women who has to "steal time" to paint. And there is no doubt it is difficult. And sometimes when you find you do have a couple of hours, exhaustion can cause you just to sit down and read the paper! Then of course more guilt ensues. We're all on a quest anyway and supporting each other, as you and Brenda do, is the key to moving on. Thanks for that Don. Really enjoying the fabric paintings by the way. I have been looking at Whistler and the English painter Albert Moore and they painted such delicious folds of fabric too.

Don Gray said...

What nice things to say, Dar--thank you.

Don Gray said...

Wow, Anne--you sent me right of my element real fast! "Fiber content"?...hmmm...yes, I'm pretty sure it contains fiber. :^) I'll check with my in-house quilter and fiber expert, Brenda.

Don Gray said...

Sheila, you always leave thoughtful and insightful comments. One would never think you were "stealing time", judging by the high quality of your work and how prolific you are.

Thanks for the note.