My Journey With The Sheriff

My recent thought journey for Sheriff Hill's Dream Portrait:

As I warned in my last post, the ideas bouncing around in my head at the early phase of a painting's planning stage frequently morph! I have now decided that my original idea of incorporating "Do Not Enter" signs is not the most effective. I have also scratched the idea of having an officer holding out his hand in a "halt" gesture. I've determined that this needs to disappear as well. The reason being Sheriff Hill spoke in his dream about equipping the youth with systems to enable them to make good choices for their future. Therefore the idea came into focus for me that two key concepts I needed to convey were CHOICES and SYSTEMS. So, continuing with the idea of using the game LIFE as a theme, I've sketched a new direction with the plan as follows:

I will use a vertical composition to represent a feeling that life is an uphill battle of choices along it's path. The young people in the car will be facing toward their future but hesitating at a crossroad. One will be pointing to the direction of a course of actions that will lead toward a "positive "future with images representing education, and enjoying life. The other will be pointing towards another path which leads to images representing a"negative" future.The "positive" side will have brightly colored imagery while the "negative" side will use dulled, somber tones.The focal point of the composition will be a map that  the third traveler is holding. It will be drawn in an exaggerated manner so as to draw the eye to it's promise of  sure direction with the young man's finger expressively pointing to it.

 So now the idea for the composition feels "just right". This weekend I will buy the canvas and draw the figures and the layout of LIFE!

This is going to be so much fun! It's my hope that it can be a really positive message to many!

Posted in: Durham Dreams