Thanatopsis

The intermingling of life, love, death, and nature has always been at the very core of my creativity and inspiration. I can remember reading the poem Thanatopsis as a youth and falling madly in love. These concepts often present themselves most frequently in artwork. 

I always had a love for anatomy as a child because I loved to draw the human form and my father was a nurse. I used this love throughout my time spent at the Art Institute, and eventually applied these concepts to aid in my studies of Yoga as I became a teacher. Doodles and sketches of these musings can be found scattered throughout every calendar, notebook, pad, and document I've laid hands on. 

This painting was a concept that I wanted to create for years, but had only planned to illustrate and color. When I completed a more clean version on paper as planned, it was my husband who fell for the piece and sought to inspire me to do a larger version that included the pelvis and my ink drippings. Acrylic on canvas, 2021.