6 Pack Variety Assortment Coasters

Talk about a surface saver! These 3.75 x 3.75 IN. coasters are perfect for when the heat is on or your glass has the cold sweats. The tempered masonite tops are cushioned by a cork bottom and easy to keep clean with a quick brushoff using a damp cloth. What better way is there to add a pop of color to your table?

ABOUT THE PAINTING:

IMPRINT: Acrylic on canvas, 3 x 3 FT.

ANIMATED: Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 16 IN.

COBBLESTONE: Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 16 IN.

No matter how well laid your plans, the path is always gonna be a little bumpy so just keep going. We learn with each stretch of unsteady step to do better, if we’re lucky… and, sometimes, if only to learn what doesn’t work for us. But, like cobblestones, getting knocked around a bit or resting within a current, each experience smooths out our rough edges and brings us closer to the form we’re meant to be. No matter where we’re at in our journey, we’re perfect and beautiful just the way we are so just keep going.

This piece is about the paths taken and not taken, the roads we build and those we traverse. It’s about our choices and keeping at it. As Robert Frost said, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference.”

OSCILLATE: Acrylic on canvas, 10 x 10 IN. 

To oscillate means continued movement, side to side or up then down. It’s the process of that movement, that vacillation between opposites. With this piece, I oscillated.

This may seem like a simplistic composition but looks can be deceiving. This was actually one of the harder paintings I have ever approached. Size had most everything to do with it. In younger years, it was a big canvas that intimidated me. It felt so imposing with its broad, blank space. Even looking at a canvas of any larger size was suffocating, meaning it would suck out all the oxygen in the room. But, these days, a wide and open canvas is a space I can’t wait to dive into so trying a smaller canvas is a completely different universe. That was the point of this piece and the several blank canvases of this scale I have yet to paint.

The reason I have canvases of all sizes is for the adventure of exploring the different atmospheres. I love the challenge, the whole “Here I go but where the heck am I going?” This anxious feeling was very present during the whole process of the piece until I just embraced it. The layers were constructed to express this struggle. In juxtaposing circles overlaying lines as well as the pattern visible within those circles, the composition has a certain surface tension. The tension isn’t only in the forms but also in the palette and empty space. Theoretically, the visual weight of the piece should be pulling the eye to the lower right quadrant because that’s where things are most busy, as it were. But, having all the negative space in the upper left quadrant framed by the circles, the composition finds unity and balance that’s satisfying.

PASTICHE: Acrylic on canvas, 10 x 10 IN.

Pastiche means an incongruous combination of materials, forms, motifs, etc. usually taken from different sources. The composition of this painting fits this definition, snugly. But, with the way the elements come together, the theme feels pretty cohesive. Don’t you think?

This is my first finished piece of 2024 but its journey into being took over six months. It was a labor of love, frustration, a lot of experimentation and dumb luck. In short, it reflects my life over this timeline. I have no idea how many iterations it took to finally come to its conclusion, just as I can’t begin to summarize where all I had to internally go to get where I’m at now. But, that’s life: the road maps that end up going in circles only to finish in uncharted paths, the grand designs that absorb all your attention yet you have to overcome obstacles to see them clearly, the patterns you make for yourself, the patterns you brake for yourself, feeling you’ve got the world on a string only to discover you’re being pulled by a rope.

All these moments you carry with you, some as life lessons, some as experiences and some just traveling along. If you could somehow carbon copy a few of your selves in a couple of these moments, as lessons are being learned and experiences had, would these selves recognize their own tempered reflections? Maybe we’re all just a colorful pastiche in our own way. So, here’s a quilt-like composition to remind us: We need to be a little kinder to the parts that made us, us.

DIAPHANOUS: Acrylic on canvas, 1 x 1 FT.

Diaphanous means very sheer and light, almost completely transparent or translucent. I’ve always loved this word for the way it flows. When said aloud, it’s soft, like a fabric it might describe. I tried to reflect that in the delicate, warm and round layers. I’ve used this word in poetry and prose, usually describing a texture at night. It’s also a strange word. It reminds me of being told as a child that Eskimos have a hundred words for snow. Though, as an adult, I think that’s a rather simplified way to understand the language of a people whose existence is so interdependent on climate that they need to understand the nuances of frozen water and powdered horizons to survive. I’m reminded of this with “diaphanous” because it’s purpose seems abstract. It describes, yet bares no concrete need. It seems a word strictly meant for poetry, a word of leisure and elegance. If one were to wear a diaphanous gown, it’s not to keep warm or for modesty or to go out gardening on a hot day. How many other words do we have that lend themselves to the romance of poetry?