Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear

2011

33" X 25"

Oil on Panel

SOLD

This painting is a good example of a composition which ended up far from where it originally began.

The Granary Gallery had issued a call for artists to participate in a group show with the working theme…Actual Size. Fair enough. When Chris told me this the first thing that came to my mind was that phrase etched on car mirrors…he said, Right, like that. And the next thing I thought of was the mirror behind my easel chair and what I wished would be reflected in it…the ocean.
So maybe there should be some Vineyard accouterments…possibly hanging on a coat rack? And, since I am so dramatically follicly challenged…a hat ? And what say ye to one adorned with a slew of those coveted Bluefish Derby pins? Sara to the rescue. Or, rather her husband, who generously lent his hat for her to photograph for reference.

Armed with the theme, the title, and a couple of star elements I let them percolate for a few weeks.
As deadlines tend to do…this one began to loom. In the intervening days my bookshelf took on some new props…
the bunch of “beginner” pencils which Ted had given me, my father’s old pocket watch, swiss army knife and ancient fossilized shark’s tooth…a clothespin which Pat had clipped there to remind me that she’s got my back, the remnant of a vintage Black Dog T-shirt…the rest of which had been designated to the rag pile, my great grandfather’s safety glasses and the magnifying glass that some whisper in the back of my head had told me I absolutely had to find on Ebay.

Each day as I sat down to paint I would ponder just how to make this mirror and the derby hat thing work and frankly it wasn’t gelling quickly enough. Sometimes the Muses shall not be rushed. Then one day I looked outside to find a grapevine twining it’s way up the window screen…and click. I ran outside, yanked it down, brought the best of the leaves inside, taped them to the mirror’s frame and decided to expand the composition beyond the mirror and let the props tell a different story.

But they needed some help so I searched the studio for more of my Vineyardy treasures. The eel gig was a cinch, the rocks from Chilmark and the shell from a trip to Chappy…no sweat. The Corners of New England book which I had gotten from Jane Slater the year before was a nice touch, and Sue’s grandmother’s teacup was the perfect fulcrum for the looking glass…but what to tie it all together ?

Looking just a little bit to the left, tucked into the mirror’s frame but out of the composition, was this old photo of Camp Sunrise. It’s the same view from the meadow that I eventually painted in “Now that the storm has passed” but this photo was taken decades before. When the old pine tree was still growing a good distance from the edge of the bluff. That tree is gone now, as the sea steadily reclaims the eastern shore, and I keep that picture there to remind me that when we reach back to remember our histories and look in our mind’s version of a rear view mirror…

everything looks bigger than it actually was.