The Little Ghost Girl Who Won't Go Away...

It's been said that the gallery in the Dole Mansion is haunted, but who would think my paintings would be too?

The site of our upcoming show was built in the 1860s and seen generations come & go. "Ghost" sightings abound. Both Joe and friend Angela Swan each experienced different mysterious sightings and sensations when we helped her prepare for her exhibition there last fall.

Sightings of inky apparitions and Victorian-era figures have been plentiful over the years. Many think Eliza, the widow of  circus magnate Lou Ringling (who helped purchase the building in the 1920s) is still roaming the halls.

So, keep your eyes open this 1st Friday's event on 4/5/13. Who knows, we might have an extra guest checking out the artwork!

 The picture on the right is a detail from the painting in progress for the show I talked about last post. To me this figure symbolizes looking into the future, just as the grown woman captures how we look back at our past. One is open eyed, confident and knowing, but the future is young before us, and sealed like a letter yet to be read. I've drawn her on a different scale than the 'past' figure, in the tradition of iconic symbolism, to express that even though we are constantly entering it, the future often seems distant, smaller than what has been.

The thing that puzzles me about this figure is that as I've started to paint it, I realize: she has haunted my paintings before. 

Another painting that will be in the show started with a very similar child figure that I removed from the its final composition and then there's this baffling piece:

This is an eternal work in progress, really, because Joe was so taken with it that he sneaked the painting out of the house to frame it before I had finished!  (He was afraid it would be painted over into another piece eventually.)  And there are other pieces where spirit figures emerge....

So, it seems the ghost girl has followed me for years. Is it possible to have haunted paintings? I suppose in time, I'll find out. I'll be on a search to find out who/what she is and why she won't go away. In the meantime, maybe I'll just call her Eliza for now.

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