PTSD: Easy as ABCs! Painting

"PTSD: Easy as ABCs!" was a piece that was two years in the making, along with "Malleable." By the time I was 10, I had lost both of my parents to premature deaths. The time between my mothers death when I was 8 and my father's when I was almost 10 was confused and traumatic. The process of my father passing away, our old home, the family and friends around-- it is all so vague in my mind-- like a pair of shoes that you forget you own until you are cleaning out your closet. You knew they were there somewhere in your mind, but all the same, you forgot and to find them again, they seem fresh. At 35 I was diagnosed with PTSD from the death of my parents. Apparently, I have "textbook" symptoms. Realizing that I have been coping with the side-effects of PTSD for 25 years was astonishing and lead me to worry. I started to reflect what my trauma meant to me as a mother. Does my trauma make me a bad mother? Does it play out on my son? My son is near the age I was when my mother passed, and I am starting to understand the heartbreak of my situation in a new light, though, at the time-- being raised by my older siblings, us all orphans-- it was just life. What is that? "Malleable" and "PTSD: Easy as ABC" were created in tandem. As I worked on the pieces side by side (and subsequently stopped for 6 months in the middle) on one level, I was building my childhood out of foam letters and the colors of my childhood home. In "Malleable," I was literally rearranging the spirals of a fingerprint, while processing what it means to be in therapy and and rearrange your identity. This is an innovative process using cold wax and oil paint. I place layer upon layer of cold wax with oil paint, scraped with ribs to create patterns, and then shave the layers away to reveal the colors and patterns beneath. As far as I know, this process is uncommon and rare. I tend to use a minimum of 5-10 layers. I add layer upon layer until I forget what colors I used, colors often inspired by the Montana landscape, thus giving a brilliant surprise upon my first scrape. I pull layers away, finding the image beneath. I add layers. I take away, I add. I get myself into a conundrum, a problem, and I add and take layers away. Sometimes, the reveal, the completion is in the initial scrape or pull. Sometimes, it takes months. I often take the shavings and add them back into the painting or use them in other pieces.

Painting:Oil on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:35 W x 30 H x 1.8 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.