Larry's possibility portrait
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Gouache and gold leaf on foamcore board. This is a portrait of my father.
In the background is his favorite jogging spot, which represents awareness and living in the moment to him. The yellow band contains music from the Afternoon of a Faun by Debussey, which models playfulness, beauty, and a sense of spontaneity for him. In the outer blue band, the golden command Behold! at the top of the painting and the sunset surrounding it remind him of the possibility of serenity and awareness of beauty in the everyday.
At the bottom of the painting, the words of a Chinese saying appear in red, The fire goes out, but somewhere else a fire starts. Nothing is lost, not even in death: a source of serenity to him.
The yin-yang symbol in the bottom center of the painting speaks to Larry of serenity, playfulness, and beauty. The left-hand image of a sage floating down the river in a giant gourd (from a story told by a Chinese philosopher) is a reminder of the joys of spontaneity and playfulness. The right-hand image of himself as a young and daring skier also represents these qualities (plus serenity and beauty).
At the top middle of the picture, a medallion of an oak tree with the Latin words Semper idem, sed non eodem modo (always the same, but not in the same way) stands for the unpredictable spontaneity and beauty of all growth, the spontaneity and beauty of life itself unfolding, which gives Larry a feeling of deep serenity.
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