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| Oak Forest, Yankee Woods ©Antonia Ruppert Mixed Media on Paper |
In conjunction with my month-long exhibition, Orland Park Library’s Outreach Services is sponsoring a Meet the Artist night on Friday, September 4th, 2009 beginning at 7pm. In addition, I will present my talk, “Aging with Dignity and Compassion” on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 beginning at 7pm.
For the last year, I have been grappling with the idea of aging and connecting that to my artwork. This new artistic direction came about when I started caring for my grandmother in the summer of 2008. I cherished singing hymns with her or having her ask for more strawberry jello or black walnut ice cream.
After painting grandmother several times, I focused my artistic energies on capturing fleeting moments with her. I had no idea she’d leave us this past February.
Fleeting. Changing. Temporal. I found that with my experience with my grandma. I also found that same experience in my recent trip to Saugatuck, MI at Oxbow. The sun was there and then it wasn’t. Shadows moved across the space with the clouds. I had to paint, design and carve out negative spaces that moved.
Life is short. Creating helps me enjoy it.
