Vermilion Sunrise

It all started when…

A customer asked me to paint a cloudscape with faces hidden in the clouds. At first, I was apprehensive about the idea, but the more I thought about it, the more excited about it I became. I think that people connect to a piece of art because there is something in it that reminds them of an experience they had, or a new idea they learned, or a memory, etc. Because they have connected to that artwork in that way, the artwork can hold space for them to walk through that. In this customer’s case (because I knew him, he is my godfather), I decided to put pictures of some of the memories he and I had in the clouds. My godparents and I had gone to Niagara Falls together, so I put the three of us in the center right of the painting, where the main drips are. I introduced him to bloody marys on that trip, so I put the two of us drinking bloody marys in the big purple cloud on the top left. And since he was planning on hanging this painting above his desk, I put a tiny portrait of him wearing my sunglasses and a bright yellow poncho (to protect him from the waterfall mist) on the bottom side of the painting so that he could see it when he looked up from his work.

This way, my godfather would have something to connect to when he looked at this painting he had commissioned- his own memories. And since those memories were ones that he had made with me, and I was the one that had painted it for him, that added a whole new layer of meaning to the painting.

Vermilion was chosen as the inspiration for the color scheme for this painting because vermilion symbolizes life and eternity- a perfect color for a painting about memories. Check out Instagram below to see videos of the hidden portraits in the painting!