Given and Taken

How can we ask for what we want,
Without taking from someone?
How much suggestion,
is too much suggestion?
Would two human beings ever
fall into something together
at exactly the same time,
with exactly the same depth?

A description of my new mural, "Time"

A philosophical (and perhaps too lengthy) description of "Time", or "Lady Bell", on the Bell Apartments

'

At first, 

you think you're creating this piece, 

that you have all of the reasons, 

all of the metaphors created, 

you have all of the tools 

in your own pocket 

to bring this concept to life.

In the end,  you find that

a piece of art has its own things to say. 

It knows more than you, 

and knows to incorporate what you never thought to. 

Now that it exists in the physical realm,

it will dance with the shadows

and flirt with the sunlight.

It will morph and accept its meaning

from every person's sight.

It will accept your projection,

and will not be moved by your assumption.

Originally, I wanted an image that personified the building, The Bell Apartments. This building was erected in 1912, and renovated in the 40's. The developer taking on the feat of renovation after a recent fire is bringing in elements of both eras. One floor reminiscent of the 1900s, the other 1940s. She arose in my thoughts, a proud, wise lady, standing tall and strong, looking at us from up high. She may have been incarnated in human form once, in the early 1900s, with her late-Victorian style attire. Now, she is a ghost - she does not exist (she never really did, but can we argue that the past was ever as we imagine it to be?) I wanted her to take the memory of time along with her, using symbols we understand. When we see a book, when we see a timepiece or hear the bells ringing, we are reminded of where we are right now and where we might have been in the past. We may think of where we're going, and why we're headed there. The decisions we've made, and are continually choosing to make. As for the pattern behind her, I was inspired by the floor tile used in the building itself, specifically chosen to have that 40's elegance and style. It ended up reminding me of a starry sky. 

This concept grew beyond my own original idea, and as I painted her she told me what to do. She told me what she needed, what the piece itself needed in order to conjure a sense of emotion around time. It became deeper than this, the building showing me its curves and cracks and needing a certain kind of attention to details I did not foresee going in. The beautiful tree, sitting quiet and unassuming beside the building, cast shadows on her that also could not be ignored : now I was dealing with more than a painting on a building. I was handling light, shadow, curve, direction, weather, perspective, height. The tree would also end up playing in with the concept of time; the seasons, the change in the shadows as it loses its leaves and sways in the breeze. 

I was also blessed by community involvement: Tonny's idea of her watch displaying the time the building was erected, 19:12. David, the Jungian Psychiatrist next door, giving me a book on Time which became the title of the book she holds. Jordan's father (Jordan Milne, the developer of the building) guiding me towards illustrating the flower in her jacket as a poppy to depict wartime. 

In short, Lady Bell is a depiction of Time. 

a bell

a book

a watch

a poppy

details, seen

on her gloves,

stripes on her blazer,

the pearls around her neck.