Back Draft - Heidi - 24x18 - Mixed Media on Wood

This is the first painting in the Back Draft series, which explores the impact of memories--good and bad-- on our lives. Life can be compared to a river, moving always forward; but memories are a part of our past that can suddenly surface in our present life, whether we want them to or not. This elastic tendency of memories to move backward in time and then possibly have an explosive impact on the present gives the series its name. We sometimes carry the wounds and scars of memories, which can be triggered by association or conscious thought; memories can become tangled and distorted by time and emotion; sometimes memories come full circle as we finally grow to understand and make our peace with them.