Karen and Henry

Brown Field
Oil on canvas, 11x14

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When I'm painting and it's going well, my mind goes blank. Songs run through it, phrases, and sometimes, near the end of a painting, phrases and words begin to form a title. Otherwise, I paint in a glory of unconscious action. I see, I move, I swirl colors, I put brush or knife to canvas, and when I look up, two hours have passed, and the temperature has changed, and the light has drained from the day.

I love this, this feeling of being and nothingness, as though my body, my brain, my hands were nothing but extensions of art, or of paint, or of God, or the song of the universe. I love that, for a while, I am less than corporeal, at least in my soul. And the best paintings come then.

As I pulled up to the surface near the end of this painting, I began thinking of a title. "Rhapsody in Brown" seemed pretentious. (Really?) "Meet the Browns," amused me, because of a silly TV show which I have never seen, though I have seen the commercials.

Then I thought of naming this painting "Karen & Henry," after the Browns, longtime friends of my parents and two of my favorite people of all time. She is six feet tall and always struck me as glamorous. He is shorter, with Mr. Spock-like ears and one of the driest senses of humor I've ever encountered.

It made me happy to think of them. I still might name this painting after them, but for the time being, it will be "Brown Field."