Tea, my friend, at one point had a small flock of ducks on her little homestead that co-habitated happily with the cat and the dog. However, with other natural predators in the area, the duck numbers started to dwindle and eventually she had one duck left. The last-remaining duck had many names over time, but one khaki campbell duck looks a lot like the another, and in the end her name was just Ducky.
When Tea asked me to make a memorial portrait for her, we sat down to chat about how she felt about Ducky, and how she wanted to feel when she looked at the painting. Tea told me that this was the hardest pet loss she’d ever had, and went on and on about how purely she felt Ducky’s love, about how Ducky used to run and greet her when she got home.
I didn’t initially know what the design was going to look like, just the feeling: sweet, tender, loving, and peaceful. Tea had said she wanted a smaller piece, but when I went to dig through my canvases I realized I’d gotten rid of all the small ones during my last move!
I started out with the color tone I was feeling for the project: a rich marigold yellow. It felt so lovely and warm-feeling, just how I wanted the final project to turn out.
When that dried, I was able to sit down and begin. It was a gorgeous sunny day for January, and I laid out a picnic blanket and a little sitting table and turned on the tunes and started to sketch. The initial sketch flowed out quick and easily. I just was really trying to make sure I got the feel right.
It became clear to me that the theme song of this project is “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free”– the version by the Wynton Marsalis Septet, Susan Tedeschi, and Derek Truck. Listen to it while you read here.
I imagine sweet Ducky free and happy in the marigolds of Duck-heaven or some such thing, and felt myself tearing up happily. What a dear project!
I absolutely love doing this kind of project, a piece that means a lot to someone and can be beautiful and useful and potent and tender all at the same time. That’s what the my work is all about. This can be lots of things other than custom paintings– I make sacred embroideries, radical upcycling, sculptures, costumes, masks, and more. If there is a piece you’ve been dreaming of that you want to be honored in creation, please reach out! I’d love to chat with you.
I want something like this!
Order a comissioned painting here.