An Emotional Landscape for Fellow Fiend

A fellow friend, a person led to cohabit a special space of my life and in my heart, has expressed, for quite some time, a desire to commission a piece of art, made at the hands of the tee-O-bee.

Tobie put this friend to the task of a phone interview inquiring as to Fellow Friend's recent attraction to a certain palate of color, and a rant of questions designed to guide me towards an inspiration of perfect proportions...an Emotional Landscape!

Though this dear fellow friend expressed an interest in bright colors,  yellows, oranges, warmth, this is not what came into manifestation. Something else emerged...

Fellow friend is Ryan the Physical Therapist. Her life previous to this new position was quite a journey to which I have been privy for only some short years.  Various careers, copious amounts of study and self discipline, great sacrifices, and a desire to give to the greater good of humanity. This is Ryan. she is deep, sensitive, loving, graceful, feminine, beautiful, intelligent, at times conflicted and frustrated, other times victorious and blisfully full of fun. This is Ryan.

I will never forget visiting her at PT school and her being excited to take me to the cadaver laboratory where she was studying the human form with scalpel and latex gloves. Timid to follow her into the laboratory, I was surprised at how fascinating it really was. I imagined DaVinci and his tediously morbid study of human anatomy and very detailed drawings of his accounts...

This painting is for you Ry. It is a story of you, of all women and human beings. It is ethereal, embodied, Venus in the half shell. The surrounding environment is very aquatic, embryonic and fluid - Feminine. the figure itself, emerged in the waters, appears with warmer tones, naked, exposed and pure.This composed with various symbols of the tree which represents countless things, but in this case more along the lines of representing our connectedness to family, nature and life and the planet  and also representing the veins and arteries within our physical bodies in which the life force of blood travels through us. Birds representing our fleeting thoughts, troubles, hopes, desires, dreams,etc. Crows and Ravens in particular are like dark angels come to set the balance of the natural order. They are known by the Pacific Northwest Indians to be ministers of veiled mysteries.

So this painting is a small piece, a small reflection and expression of my fellow friend. I wish you all the best on your journey Ry, and look forward to witnessing the miricle of your life, as your buddy for a long time!

XXX

Tobie