Image of the Week: The Crossed Lives
The Crossed Lives is a small painting on birch bark, maybe 12" high, that I painted in 2005. This is a precious handmade surface that I created by peeling a curl of bark into many thin layers, then pasting them down, layer by layer, on mat board. The reddish-brown inner side of the bark is what I love most, both for its earthy color and perfect mid-tone: dark enough that light colors stand out against it; light enough that dark colors are still clearly visible. The birch bark provides a richness that must usually be built up with paint; here it's merely evoked by allowing the bark to show through. My challenge was to get out of the way, articulate sparingly, and let the surface breathe.
Birch bark's water-resistant surface takes paint beautifully. There's nothing like gouache for painting on an organic surface. Merely a touch of white paint practically lights up, the contrast is so intense. That doesn't happen with paper, which is absorbent. Very little paint was needed for this painting, and the image appeared quickly.
Pictured here is the feeling of destiny that surrounds many relationships, including my own at the time of this painting. The series of events that draws people together can be uncanny – and for a time, their lives overlap. But in the long run, not every relationship is meant to last – yet even one that doesn't can still be written in the stars. Destiny brings two souls together – but then their lives may cross and keep going in opposite directions. The mysterious forces that draw people toward each other can just as quickly pull them apart.
We don't usually question these meetings, but the partings are hard to accept. Only time makes sense of it. Painting a picture helps.
A good week to all,
D Yael Bernhard