Acrylic painting on stretched canvas 18" square"My Dragon Defiance and I" is the second page of my second Granny Diane Book "When I get to be Older". I sat a grandson in my lap as the story developed and my grandchildren take the lead. The first page was published Nov. 5. In the new book I picture myself telling my stories to family and friends gathered around the flickering light of a camp fire.
Our Flight on a Dragon Named Defiance
to Save my Memory Blanket
Lord Loss sends me a mighty challenge.
Lord Loss steals and turns into dust my most precious treasures, treasurers that keep my memories alive - not just any memories. They are secrets of living that my parents taught me.
My father's Siberian horse blanket is one of my treasurers. Father and I sat on the blanket on the bank of a river when I was a baby. When I was eleven my parents and I huddled under it inside our home made camper tent at Yosemite. Mother sewed canvas tarps to drape over our 1934 Chevy Coup to make a tent.
Now that I get to be older, Lord Loss is making father's blanket fall apart. The story of the blanket has never been told and will be lost unless Lord Loss releases the blanket from becoming dust.
I can not defeat Loss alone. I must get the help of my grandchildren. But first I must have a dragon. Lord Loss can only be defeated I believe with a splat of paint from my most mighty paint brush. Plus a grandchild and I must be riding between the humps of a camel dragon. I'll paint a dream of a dragon I'll call Defiance. On his back I'll place my father's Siberian Horse blanket. Holding my biggest brush up high, Defiance, my youngest grandson and I will ride off to the Valley of Never Dry to bring Lord Loss to his knees. Will this plan work?
Lord Loss begged us not to slap him with paint that would never dry. He said, "There is only one way to preserve the blanket. All your grandchildren must draw or paint the blanket and together all of you must solve the riddle. What is the meaning of the four bear claws, one in each corner, and the trees in the center?
Well what do you say? Shall we paint pictures of a horse wearing the blanket? Maybe that will help solve the riddle. If the blanket is then restored we will let Lord Loss go.
( to be continued with the art of my grandchildren and readers if you know anything about Asian weaving and symbolism, please help us out)
5 comments:
I love that painting. It's fun and the story is not only good but has underlying wisdom. Well done
I love the wildness and looseness of your paintings, something I strive for but can't quite get. Your work is always an inspiration.
The dragons are lovely too.
Thank you Rain and Joyce,
I hope during the Thanksgiving holiday I will be able to interest my grandkids in painting this adventure. I love the wildness and the symbolism of children's art. I get inspiration from them.
yes, they are both loose, lots of passion. I prefer the first though because it seems to me to represent winged victory. A woman going to war for a cause. She is also much sexier than the other. The other is as though she has traded her sexiness for family needs, that she sees her power as through her family. They might be equally strong concepts but just I prefer the first one
Thanks Rain,
I like your interpretation of the winged victory. It is an equally powerful idea. With your radient inspiration I will paint another of just Winged Victory riding her dragon against the fraility of old age. Or some other cause.
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