Acrylic on Canvas

10” x 20”

I was uncertain what to call this piece at first; upon asking members of my Facebook Community what the work evoked in them, the general consensus was imagery relating to the ocean/water/tides. An old friend from Astronomy Camp** suggested the title Borrasca. According to my friend (and spanishdict.com) borrasca is Spanish for storm, upheaval, unrest, and/or a low pressure system. As soon as I heard this, I fell in love.

My abstract pieces are often an expression of my own internal unrest; I’ve been through my share of storms (as I imagine we all have) and I often choose to create abstractions from these experiences because I find it much easier to explore an idea (or an emotion or physical sensation) without the added pressure of the work “having to be something.” The borrasca or “low pressure” of abstract art helps me to find and be myself as an artist. This idea also goes far beyond the art studio…

Over the years I’ve caused myself so much angst by feeling and responding to pressures that cause me to be something I’m not; as with art, in life I always feel freer to be myself in low(er) pressure situations. So Borrascas holds a beautiful duality—truly a dialectic—between two seemingly opposite ideas: The storms and depressions (borrascas) that often create internal or external upheaval can be healed using the English translation of the same. Borrascas as a piece of art is now a reminder of that duality: our storms will decrease when the only pressure we respond to is the pressure that encourages us to be ourselves.

*Title suggested by Lucia Galvan de Fernández

**Astronomy Camp is a wonderful experience for both teens and adults that I was fortunate to attend both as a camper in my teenage years and later as a counselor. If you or any of your children are interested in a wonderful, hands-on, research-quality STEM experience, definitely check it out!

A painting inspired by a winter sunrise, the Portia Nelson poem Autobiography in Five Short Chapters, and my own parts of the (very human) process of self-discovery, understanding, acceptance, and change.

Acrylic on Canvasboard

9” x 12”

© 2015

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