Thursday, September 04, 2008

Una Sonrisa, a finished work: 9-4-08


My portrait of Claire is finally done. I am pleased with the finality of it! I think the process of giving a finished piece of art a title is rather interesting. I generally have nothing in mind as far as a title goes and will often give my work in progress a working title. This work sat around my studio and then my family room for a month and finally it dawned on me that one of the defining features of my daughter is her smile, hence the title which means smile in Spanish. I chose the Spanish translation of smile because I think it is such a beautiful word. Sonrisa evokes a happiness in me and that is what Claire does. My Claire is very intelligent and quick witted. I love her quips and she can crack up just about everyone. But when she smiles, she lights up my world. I also found a quote about smiling (I just googled the word smile and came up with a dozen or so quote sights) and the handwriting on the wall ( a pun is intended here) says: "If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will benefit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work." I did write in who the quote is attributed to but can't read the name which is rather long. This closes the book on the class I took on line from Paulette Insall. It is time to move onto the next project (an abstract collage for my mixed media class).
K

3 comments:

Kari Gibson said...

Wow! This is wonderful - she really does have a beautiful smile. Yes, indeed, a long way since Art Decos (sniff, I miss them).

I look forward to seeing what you do next!

Undaunted said...

This piece is absolutely beautiful Kathy! Really lovely.

It's interesting what you say about titles for pieces. I'm working on a piece at the moment and have no idea what I'm going to call it! I could just call the piece by the name of the person, as you could have done with this piece, but I want a more interesting title for it. Una Sonrisa is a great title!

Anonymous said...

Love the finished piece Kathy! Your daughter is beautiful...I'm curious what does she think of the portrait?

amy