2024 Review of Paintings
“The Infinite Sky” gouache on paper, 30” x 22”, 2024.
Happy New Year! I’m happy it’s 2025, I love the start of a new year— it’s a blank canvas ready to be filled with new hopes and aspirations!
The tail-end of 2024 was a particularly challenging one for me, and the reason I’ve been absent for a month from my own blog. I have been very sick with this new case of Lyme, much sicker than I ever was the first time around (back in 2018). This new Lyme infection kicked off December with fevers, severe nausea, diarrhea, body aches, migrating sharp pains (I’m told these are called ice pick pains) and a hormonal sh*t storm that leveled me, and I spent a lot of time on the couch. Not much fun at all, but I’m starting to recover after almost 6 weeks of antibiotics and a new protocol issued by my new nurse practitioner, which includes binders, herbal supplementation to continue killing the spirochetes, medications to calm my mast cells, and a lot of immune support.
I’m also very sad to write that my sweet mother died in December; this is a deep, deep loss that is rocking me to my core. I know I’m not the only one, and maybe some of you have gone through this already. But losing my mother felt like it rendered me a child, even though I am a mother and have my own children. My father died three years ago, and now that my mom has joined him, it makes me feel orphaned, no longer have any living parents. My mother was the kindest person I know, but she suffered from dementia the last decade+ of her life, so like all dementia sufferers, she was dealt a difficult hand. She really went through a lot, and I’m happy that she has achieved peace from her illness... but still, I’m missing her every day.
On a more optimistic note, I thought I would take this opportunity to look back on the paintings I created in 2024, because I think it’s interesting to see where my inspiration has taken me in a year. So, in chronological order, here are the ten works I finished in 2024!
#1 Ross (commission)
“Ross” gouache on paper, 30” x 22”, 2024.
This painting actually took me quite some time to complete and was started in 2023. It was the most complex commission I’ve ever done, because there were many elements that my commissioner requested be included in the painting. To protect my client’s privacy, I’m not going to elaborate of the meaning of each element, only to say that I was ultimately very happy with the way I ended up bringing such diverse imagery/text/mapping together! And so was he 😊.
#2 Brain Retraining
“Brain Retraining” gouache on paper, 16” x 12”, 2024.
I painted this one when I was in the middle of a very intense brain retraining/limbic system retraining program which I’ve spoken about before, called Primal Trust. One of the things I was thinking about with this one is whether I’ll be able to fly again, due to my health. I still don’t know the answer to that question, but I have been feeling much more drawn to painting flying birds, rather than flying planes. The canary is the bird that feels self-symbolic. Canaries were used by miners in the coalmines to indicate the presence of harmful gases in the tunnels of the mines, since canaries were very sensitive and would perish before the miners were adversely affected. Thus, I see myself as a canary: highly sensitive to toxins in my environment that others may not be affected by for some time, if ever.
#3 Night Sky
“Night Sky” gouache on paper, 30” x 22”, 2024.
This painting started out as a simple pattern of circles, within which I added some simple shapes and started breaking them into smaller and smaller pieces. The result was a jewel-like pattern of constellations! It reminded me of the skies full of stars that I could see so well from my apartment on the 3rd floor of my friends’ beautiful house, through the huge windows. Because of the complexity of the repeating colors within tiny shapes, this one took me a very, very long time to finish!
#4 BlueJay
“Blue Jay” gouache on paper, 30” x 22”, 2024.
This was the first painting I did this year that was inspired by tile. Since I needed to pick out tile for my kitchen in my new house, I began looking at a lot of tile and got very inspired by Moroccan tiles. I also had been seeing a lot of Bluejays outside my window that spring, and really wanted to try painting their patterned feathers. The singular bird on a field of pattern also felt more minimalist to me, and I liked the simplicity of elements.
#5 Court (commission)
“Court” gouache on paper, 30” x 22”, 2024.
Without giving too much away about my client, this commission was created for a very interesting, adventurous and genuinely sympathetic friend from my boarding school years, who reconnected with me via the internet. The composition was inspired by Tibetan Thangkas, which are a type of Tibetan Buddhist painting on cotton or silk, usually depicting a Buddhist deity or mandala. I wove in many elements from my friend's life experiences and passions, and even the dragon image from one of my older dragon paintings that he admired. He was very happy with this piece, as was I!
#6 The Infinite Sky
“The Infinite Sky” gouache on paper, 30” x 22”, 2024.
After the commission was done, I returned to my new obsession with tile, and the magical way that different colors applied to the same pattern can make the pattern appear vastly different. I also returned to the canary, choosing again to place a singular bird in a big field of pattern that I imagined went on infinitely. The title is also an homage to my developing respect and reverence for nature as a divinity, something I write about a lot in my poems.
#7 My Sacred Circle
“My Sacred Circle” gouache on paper, 30” x 22”, 2024.
The title for this one came from Elizabeth Gilbert's talk, in which she expounded on the importance of knowing who and what you allow inside your "sacred circle"… in other words, what you value most should support your ability to be your true self. I loved this concept so much, and it felt like it worked perfectly with the image of me (the canary) flying solo, silhouetted by the big moon and sky. The imagery continues to be inspired by color theory, tiles and canaries.
#8 Reuben
“Reuben” gouache on paper, 16” x 12”, 2024.
I commissioned myself to paint my dog Reuben, whom I lost prematurely this fall (he was only 8). I loved this dog so much! Reuben went through everything with me… all of the moves and the illness and the isolation, and he really was my therapy dog. So when he died, I knew I wanted to paint him and his mad, wild fur, with a typical pouty Reuben look on his face. But I also wanted it to be fun, a happy painting when I felt sad, so I made it bright and colorful and included his favorite dinosaur toy.
#9 I Dream in Green
“I Dream in Green” gouache on paper, 30” x 22”, 2024.
I wrote about this painting in a previous blog, but in this work I attempted to recreate a dream I had many years ago, about a green pattern. I attempt this every year or so, and using a more complicated pattern gave me reason to include a lot more colors and really make this green rich. Color theory is very intuitive to me, but I am very sensitive to color and often try many different variations, adding and changing colors in the pattern which often takes a lot of time, in order to get it "right". I used a blackbird this time, partly because it was the only color that popped against the green, but also because I liked the mysteriousness of it, and the symbolism attached (resilience, intelligence, transformation).
#10 Love Like Maddie (commission)
“Love Like Maddie” gouache on paper, 16” x 12”, 2024.
I love dogs, and I love painting them, so when a friend and classmate asked me to paint her late dog, I was very excited! All of the imagery is symbolic/meaningful to my friend, and she also requested the “Love Like Maddie” title, which I incorporated into a mandala-like gold frame, celebrating her beautiful boxer Maddie. Maddie served as a companion to all of the rescue dogs my friend fostered over the years. From what I could tell, Maddie had a very calming effect on rescues who came home to stay with them. Like her owner, clearly Maddie had a big heart!
And that’s my 2024 collection! I always hope to be more prolific, but my hand seems to have its own mind, and often I end up creating complex, time-consuming and very detailed work! So I've learned to indulge myself, because I like the result better that way, and I’m not sure I could work any other way. Embracing that idea of indulging oneself, maybe this is the year for me to be more me, and for you to be more you! What does that even look like?
I’m wishing each one of you a fulfilling, joyful and healthy year. I love to think of all of the individuals that I know read these blogs, and how each person has such unique talents, hopes and dreams… so I truly hope your particular dreams manifest this year!
With love ❤️,
Lise