September 20, 2015
Choosing the songs was difficult, but some chose me. I listen to Sirius 60s channel in my
studio. It seemed that every time I
turned on the radio, I heard ‘Both Sides Now’ by Judy Collins. This is a song that I liked, but did not
think about illustrating. But I heard it
again and again, like a message that I could not ignore. So I decided to try. I put lots of clouds in the painting, with a
lot of potential interpretations. But I
fudged on the castle. I had never seen a
castle in the sky, so I did a cloud with some little spiky points sort of like
turrets. And I kept looking at
clouds. Every time I went out I looked
at clouds. We had some spectacular
clouds—clouds that, if I had painted them, you would say, “I never saw a cloud
like that.” But I kept asking to see a
castle. I finished the painting, but
wasn’t happy with the “ice cream castle in the air.” One night, on the way to see West Side Story
at the Muni, I saw it! It was a real
castle with 3 flat topped turrets just floating in the air. I quickly sketched it and added it to the
painting the next day. So when you come
to the show and see Both Sides Now, you will see the castle that I saw in the
clouds that night. Again, the show
opening is October 17 (5:30 – 7:30) at the Prairie Art Alliance Gallery at the Hoogland and it runs until December 3. Hope to see you there.
