"Grief Waits" 9"x12" ©2007 Mark Easton

Grief Waits

9"x12" image size

Acrylic on canvas, framed

$150.00 plus shipping and handling ($20 lower 48 USA, others vary)

When I complete a painting I send photos to a few close friends who tell me what they think, one of those people is my sister Robin. Below are her thoughts on the painting which, with her permission, I share with you.

I suggest you sit with the painting and feel into it before reading Robs comments. Let me know what you think.


"I love this painting, it has movement if one sits with it. It starts to speak to the viewer and the story shifts and changes, more accurately it unfolds for me. Actually the more I look at this painting the more it evolves. It's a profound piece.

I find this painting, “GRIEF WAITS”, fascinating. If one sits with it they will discover many layers to it. What I find interesting is this: if you look at the blue being kneeling in front of the green serpent, his blue body is somewhat pulled back even though he is bravely reaching out to the huge green serpent. But it also looks like the blue figure has an "ethereal body" (the darker shadow outline around him that is in the brown). And his ethereal body is more relaxed and actually leaning it's head closer to the green serpent, even the fainter shadow or blur in front its hands is reaching toward the serpent. Then if you look at the serpent you'll notice the radiating lines coming from his chest or heart (in the brown) that go directly toward the blue figures chest and throat.

Then I found myself asking which is Grief and which is the "Other." And then I felt that the blue figure was the grief, and it seemed gentle and waiting and beckoning in a healthy way. Encouraging. And then I felt that the serpent was repelling the blue figure or Grief by the radiating lines from it's chest to the blue figure. And yet it was also encircling the blue figure creating a sense of inevitability of the two connecting.

THEN, I felt that the serpent was grief, BIG and overwhelming and immutable, slowly circling and closing in on the blue figure (not necessarily menacing, but moving closer). Again the sense of the inevitable. And the blue figure was begging gentleness, forgiveness and compassion from the HUGE green Grief.

THEEEENNNNNN, I went from to "feeling" (or noticing and experiencing) ALL of the blue/black in the photo….the blue/black figure kneeling, the blue/black along the sides of and in the serpents body. And then the feeling hit me that they are interconnected or inseparable and always were, but are now recognizing it. What emphasized that for me was also the yellow above both their heads that gave me a safe and divine sense of being or feeling. That life was perfect and inevitable and okay and that we are all ONE and all safe. Even in our grief. Both the sharing of grief and the embracing of grief.That is literally the sequence of emotions and reactions I had with this painting. It might appear a simple (not simplistic) painting at first perusal, but it is in fact a very deep painting if one lets it in. It is intense with emotion and with MOTION (movement) in that it literally starts to speak to the viewer and the story shifts and changes, more accurately it unfolds for me. It is a profound piece."

-Robin Easton

"A Poem To Myself"

I was never myself

until I met you

until I met you

fully

on the road

I was never myself

I was never myself

only a shell

waiting to be filled

filled with you

I was never myself

I was never myself

until you took me home

took me in

without a word

I was never myself

I was never myself

Now here I am

Here I am

fully I meet you

fully I am

fully myself

©2005 Mark Easton