I positively HATE posting paintings that aren’t finished, but I really needed to post something as it’s not everyday one gets to be a “Tart of the Month”! That’s right, I’m proud to say that now it’s official – I’m a Tart! And I get to hold the title for an entire month! Better yet, it’s a month where everyone’s “doin’ it!” My relatives were right about me all along – go figure. Thanks Nicole! (of The Pop Tarts).

My other exciting news is that I’ll have three paintings in the “Everything But the Kitschen Sync” group show at the La Luz de Jesus Gallery in LA! The three paintings accepted are: “Virginia”, “Dead of Night” and this one.

Now I’m going to sit back with a glass of wine to celebrate!

Kipling West suggested that I should paint the image of La Llorona based on an article she found on Neatorama, and I listened to her, although I didn’t expect that it was going to freak me out.

The original legend has many variations, but the one similar theme in all of them is that after a mother drowns her children in a river, she looses her mind, kills herself and continues to walk the banks looking for her lost babies. If by chance, you’re a child and found by “The Weeping Woman”, she will claim you as her own. This other version that Kip sent to me was adapted by homeless children in Florida. It’s similar, but she’s apparently moved on from the river bank.

I’m thinking now that I should probably do Bloody Mary next, another legendary murderess. perhaps I’ll use the image of Queen Mary I for the haunted mirror image…

While visiting Mum in Saskatchwan, my favourite activity is going into the abandoned farmhouses. Granted, I take some care when doing this; I don’t go up broken stairs, or move stuff around, I just go in as far as I think safe, and imagine what the house once looked like. Sometimes it can be a little freaky (I swear you can hear the walls talking at times) but mostly I feel sad for the house itself. I picture how it once saw children born and people die, it helped feed and heal, it heard laughter and saw tears, and now vacant, it’s left alone and unwanted.

I also wonder why it was left behind. Was it because something horrible happened? Or maybe after the parents died the children just left the homestead to rot? Perhaps the family won the lottery and moved into a mansion somewhere. More than likely, the cost of running a farm just got too high for them and they were forced to leave.

Regardless, I still enjoy looking at these broken-down homes. I find them absolutely beautiful.

“Virginia”
Egg Tempera
6.25 x 12″

“House Where Nobody Lives” -Tom Waits