I looked at my weather app recently and it said it would be 7 degrees “colder” today than yesterday. That means it’s 92 instead of 99. I think “colder” isn’t really the right word. “Lower,” or a simple report of the temperatures would have been sufficient.
Anyway, here in Memphis, it’s been hot, hot, hot – like it has been in so much of the country. And the world. Luckily I’ve got an air conditioned apartment. And though I’m still fatigued, I’ve been in that apartment working on a painting.
This is a piece I painted in 2019 called Flying Dreams.
It was inspired, of course, by the desire to escape from one’s limitations, and the almost universal dream of humans wanting to fly.
It was also inspired by the song “Flying Dreams” by the band Birds of Chicago. I love the lyrics.
The original Flying Dreams sold, but I missed it. I decided to do an update. (I may do that with a few more paintings, too.)
"I wish you flying dreams
I don't wish you wings
Because if you grow those things
That's everything
There's no more dreams
There's only silence in the night"
For my new painting, I wanted to try new materials that were easier on my hands, including acrylic markers. I couldn’t do the whole painting in marker, though, so I used acrylic paint and ink. Sometimes a brushstroke is so much more expressive than a marker or pen.
This is the new 2026 Flying Dreams: It’s on canvas board, 20×24”
I painted this to enter in the Opulent Mobility show in Los Angleles. I was rushing through it when I got out of the hospital, trying to make the deadline at the end of August. Luckily, they extended the deadline to the end of September, so I could slow down, add layers and details, and work more at my slow speed.
If you’re unfamiliar with Opulent Mobility, it “is an international annual exhibit that asks artists to re-imagine disability as opulent and powerful. In these shows we imagine a world where disability is celebrated instead of denied, ignored, and feared. These exhibits are curated by founder A. Laura Brody along with disability arts activist and photographer Anthony Tusler.”
You can read about it, see art from past shows and even enter, if you’d like, from here.
A. Laura Brody has worked for a while now to make catalogs for all the Opulent Mobility shows, and two are now available on MagCloud. You can buy both physical and paper copies of the catalogs at MagCloud https://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/3406166?__r=8925506
Opulent Mobility is a non-profit and requires a lot of work by Laura and Anthony, and countless others who want to see disability t reflected in the mirror of humanity that is art.
Now it’s time for me to get back to another painting, hopefully I’ll have it finished by the deadline.
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