Ode to the Trees
One day I was finishing a painting just like I do. It is what I do, I paint and then I paint another painting. Image #1 Objects of Silence” was that painting. But little did I know as I signed my name that the world was about to change. And change it did to a new world. The date was March 12, 2020. I am an artist who has been painting since I was 19 and I live with my husband Allan Teger. We live in a dream place in Vero Beach, Florida. Allan was at an art show, Under the Oaks, in Vero, when the police came around and shut the show down. That was our beginning us Covid 19. He called and told me to buy some food. I did. He came home and we started planning our future, although we had no idea what the future would be.
I put my brush down and did not paint until June of 2020. #2 image Food. My primal thought was feeding my family. My family in Vero consisted of only Allan and I. My family and children were in other parts of the country. I did not see them for over a year but we did phone calls on the portal and we remained close as always.
For one year to date of March, 12, 2021, I kept a daily journal. It is not very exciting because each day was the same. But I did give my thoughts of the day. Image #3 Gardening was my other thing I did every day. I worked in my garden. As you can see, I lived in paradise so why did I feel disjointed? Something was wrong. It was the uncertainty of life. Would we get sick or die? Was anyone we know going to get sick or die? We saw no one. We walked around the neighborhood but no one would get close to anyone else. A strange land it had turned into.
I did not paint or go to my studio until the middle of June 2020. Image #4 “Under the Lamp Post” was my first attempt at painting. It was interconnected and tight. It was complicated like the world around me. My next time at the studio is image #5. It was now July and the title of the large painting is “Poetic Space”. I wanted to hear poetry and beautiful music again in my life. I painted the rest of 2020 in my studio, all alone with no visitors. Image #6 “Behind the Velvet Curtain” was my last painting of 2020. I was ready for the new year.
I painted in Florida for the beginning of the year 2021. We have a home in Ohio. An old farmhouse that we did not travel to and live in in 2020. So, in 2021 we did the journey to Oak Harbor, Ohio. All in all, the place looked good. It is in the middle of no-where. Farm fields surround us and the birds were still singing. Evidently, they did not know of Covid. Image 7 is titled “Ode to the Trees”. We lost two of our 100 year old Maple trees due to old age. As they were being sawed down, I was in my studio, painting this painting.
It is now October 2021 and we leave Ohio and return to Florida. I have whole heartily thrown my whole body and soul back into painting. What had I learned? I learned that the future is always uncertain but what we do each day is very important. I have learned to get up each day and be happy. I want peace in the world. I am not an artist who is struggling for my identity. I know who I am. I hope my paintings touch the souls of those who look at them. I want joy and love forever in the world. As John Lennon said, “Imagine all the people living together as one” Let us all be dreamers.
Images 8,9, and 10 are where I am now. I re-entered the world when restrictions were lifted and I felt like I could fly with the birds. I want the world to be a simple place and I am striving to make my paintings quiet and gentle.
