Flesh Colored Band-Aids and A Decade Past

This is called Flesh Colored Band-Aids and part of my personal collection. I was still in my ‘gigantic canvas’ mode. I think I considered this a small canvas at the time. It is a 2 ft. by 4 ft./acrylic, -so the child is actually life size . Now the strange thing about this is- I never had the time to properly execute a ‘gigantic canvas’ but that’s what I always selected. I did Flesh Colored Band-Aids in 2000 and decided to keep it.

The stimulus for the painting was a simple paper cut I had gotten at work. It was one of those things that started bleeding like crazy. I was fearful the blood would get on my clothing. My friend, Terry, took me to the company kitchen and put a band-aid on my finger. As she did- she mumbled,” Flesh Colored Band-Aids”. When I questioned her she told me a childhood story:

She had fallen and scraped her knees. Her mother was in the process of bandaging it. Terry looked at the box. It was labeled “Flesh Colored Band-Aids.” Confused with the label, she said to her mother, “Momma! This isn’t my flesh color?”
My beautiful black friend went on chatting and laughing, unaware of the impact of her story. I stared at the flesh colored Band-Aid matching my white Caucasian finger. I couldn’t imagine what Terry’s childhood must have been in the 50’s and 60’s dealing with segregation, integration and multitude of racist experiences.

So, I imagined Terry as a child and her Flesh Colored Band-Aids. Terry loved it and said the little girl looked very much as she did.

Now, almost a decade later, I see how my work has changed and evolved. My time was spent on the child’s legs and facial expression. There’s no detail in the background and even the child’s dress is simplified, working only as a bright red relief to the darkness that surrounds her.
The vague impressions I used to do are just not enough anymore. Today I tend to heavily detail and add the most intricate minutia. In fact, sometimes my focus on the detail becomes paramount with a painting -for example: Mijo. It was one of the first paintings I did in retirement (4’ x 3’-still in gigantic canvas mode!) I think Mijo took me 2 months to complete. By comparison, Flesh Colored Band-Aids only took a weekend- approximately 10 hours in total.
When I analyze this I can only come to one conclusion. Now that I’m retired, the children grown and stressful career over,- I can! I don’t think I ever had ‘time’ of any sort in my adult life. My working life had been so hectic and demanding, the weekends were all that I had for my own art. Even then, I was never able to spend a whole day in my studio.

Today, I sometimes feel like I’m in a space where time isn’t significant as I work. The least of things demand I paint them with intent and relevance. It’s like the details whisper, “Do you see me? Make me seen. I’m part of the story.”

Hours pass and I’m oblivious to the time. I actually have time to think, examine and experiment and redo my work as many times as I want. For the first time in my life- I have time. And, yes. It’s wonderful and I cherish every minute.

Ever look back over the past decade? What kind of wonderful changes do you see?
Vikki
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