MelanieJoy

  When I started this one, we were living in Switzerland, in a small town in Basel-Landschaft. This was in 2020, the pandemic was already months in. I found it hard to bring myself to paint, I did not want to project all the negative thoughts and feelings I was having into it, so I would often wait until I felt a good place mentally to work on this one.  It was exciting for me, it was colours I normally don't use, and a process I was shifting into. Plus an attention to detail that I felt a drive to incorporate.   It took on many evolutions in my creative mind, but as usual, I let happen what was to happen - those ones tend to turn out the best.  It was completed back in Canada, having traversed the globe - farther than most people I know have or ever will get to go.  This was a long drawn out labour of love, many many hours of persistence, a testament that a stillness in the soul can be found and escaped to.  My own personal journey with this painting ...

  If you follow my art and read my thoughts on each piece of artwork, you are already familiar with the idea that I can get inspiration from videogames I play. And this one is no exception.  I recently changed the game I play (Final Fantasy xiv) and even though this barely resembles the zone I was inspired by, it was none the less.  

  When I was growing up, my grandparents lived far away. I did not get to see my Grandma very much, and sadly my paternal Grandma had passed before my birth, or conception to that matter. But my maternal Grandpa's sister lived about 2 km out of the town I grew up in. She was a short, 'plump' woman, and I am sure the phrase "She's a pistol!" was first used to describe her. We would visit her a lot, she loved to bake - or it seemed she did, there was always something lovely to eat at her house.  There was puzzles, lego, afternoons in a quiet sun filled room that made you sleepy in all the best ways, with only the soft chime of a cuckoo clock every hour. And these doll bottles that were made of pure magic!  You tipped them and the liquid disappeared!    Whaaaat? My Aunt Nellie was also married to the local mortician.  I used to think he was the ghost of Abraham Lincoln and that was why he was ok being around dead bodies all the time. I remember being scared to...