Before the Dance in the White Dress
Part of the Dance series
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 24 inches
Barbara Muir ©
(Thank you to my sweet niece
Chloé who posed for this one)
On this date 5 years ago my sweet niece Chloé died. This
painting is part of a series called the Dance series, that I
painted because I was inspired by my students. Chloé -- like
my students was at the beginning of life, but couldn't see that.
Tonight I'm quoting a post I wrote about this two years ago. The
loss for those who loved my niece gets harder as time goes on.
My Dance series including "Before the dance",
"After the dance" and "At the dance" paintings
was dedicated in part to my students, who I could
see were at the beginning (many of them) of the
dance of adult life. And I wanted to wish them well.
Plus for a portrait artist, what could be more beautiful than
people dressed in party finery? This painting of my niece
stays high on my list of work I produced in that series.
My niece was so beautiful, funny and intelligent. She
had everything going for her, and yet she is no longer alive.
She died suddenly in October of 2017.
Adult life as it turns out, is not that easy for some people --
it was not for her. I find the painting and even the idea
of the series especially poignant tonight. We -- the whole
world, are like young women, and men on the edge of
life. Our future, our very existence at the moment, is
a complete unknown.
We have got to take care of each other, help in whatever
way we can -- by staying healthy, by following whatever
few small pieces of advice we get from health authorities,
by recognizing how lucky we are for every day of our good
health.
Unlike the dance metaphor about good things to come (which
was my hope), the virus (still) hitting the planet now predicts the
very opposite. People talk about boredom. But boredom
is a small price to pay to help not just ourselves, but
as many people as possible avoid this tragedy.
Have a taking care of yourself and the people you love day."
We love you Chloé.
"After the dance" and "At the dance" paintings
was dedicated in part to my students, who I could
see were at the beginning (many of them) of the
dance of adult life. And I wanted to wish them well.
Plus for a portrait artist, what could be more beautiful than
people dressed in party finery? This painting of my niece
stays high on my list of work I produced in that series.
My niece was so beautiful, funny and intelligent. She
had everything going for her, and yet she is no longer alive.
She died suddenly in October of 2017.
Adult life as it turns out, is not that easy for some people --
it was not for her. I find the painting and even the idea
of the series especially poignant tonight. We -- the whole
world, are like young women, and men on the edge of
life. Our future, our very existence at the moment, is
a complete unknown.
We have got to take care of each other, help in whatever
way we can -- by staying healthy, by following whatever
few small pieces of advice we get from health authorities,
by recognizing how lucky we are for every day of our good
health.
Unlike the dance metaphor about good things to come (which
was my hope), the virus (still) hitting the planet now predicts the
very opposite. People talk about boredom. But boredom
is a small price to pay to help not just ourselves, but
as many people as possible avoid this tragedy.
Have a taking care of yourself and the people you love day."
We love you Chloé.
that dress looks really good :)
ReplyDeleteAnd yep, boredom really isnt bad when the world is trying to implode
Hi Jennifer Rose,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXO Barbara