Last night, I finished putting the facing on my newest piece, “I See the Moon.” As you can see, it is long and skinny – 24" x 60". It was fun – and somewhat of a challenge – to design and work in these proportions.
I am really happy with this piece. It gives me a wonderfully peaceful feeling when I look at it, and remember the song my parents used to sing me to sleep:
“I see the moon, the moon sees me
Shining down through the big oak tree
Please let the moon that shines on me
Shine on the ones that I love.”
I think that I also like it because of its clean, graphic quality. Plus, I love trees, especially in the winter, because you can more clearly see the structure of their branches that make patterns as intricate as lace against the sky.
Maybe it’s because I was born on Halloween, but I have always felt that there is such magic in a full moon. To me, it is a symbol of serenity and stability, the sense that all is right with the world… and at the same time, of the mysterious, miraculous and fragile universe in which we live. I tried to capture all of these feelings in this piece.
The rising moon always reminds me of lyrics from one of my favorite singer-songwriters, James Taylor, in “You Can Close Your Eyes”:
“Well the sun is surely sinking down
But the moon is slowly rising
So this old world must still be spinning ’round
And I still love you.”