"There is always something to be made of pain.
Your mother knits."
This was deceptively difficult to do. I went to bed feeling that I had finished and woke up certain that I had not. This provided a good (and unexpected) opportunity for a partial facial study, too.
This is the watershed moment in your 30 days challenge, I think. This is amazing from start to finish, from concept to execution. Making the knitting needles echo the bones of the ribcage protecting the ball of yarn that is her heart is just phenomenal imagery. The fold of pink that first reads as a knitted scarf but upon closer examination appears to be skin (or at least the outward stuff of her body) rolled back and pinned open by the needles like a surgeon preparing for surgery--egad! So gorgeous and original and brilliant!
ReplyDeleteBut of course the real crowning beauty of this piece is her face! Those lips! That chin! That shadow on her neck! This reaches a level of realism that you have never hit before--and you do it while making it still look like YOUR work, if you know what I mean. This is still identifiable as ANN even as it does something completely different.
Truly stunning and beautiful work. This painting will mark for me the moment when something blossomed in you and your painting skills.