all in

acrylic on canvas, 4.5'x3'
© 2011 Jane Robinette | All Rights Reserved

The idea for my painting began with a spiral I saw in the Des Moines River; I was mesmerized by the patterns in the water flowing past my seat at the river’s edge. This experience led me to think about the passages of time and space, humanity and nature, individuality and interdependence, beliefs about the known world and the unknowable. In my preliminary sketches as well as in the painting of the canvas, the river form with spirals was fairly constant and came easily; the rest of the area kept changing color and content. I wrote this at the end of the painting process:

all
in the river,
we swirl in and out
of eddies,
seemingly apart
but mingling in
one flowing mass.

every act
affects all—
clarity and path,
color and rhythm,
abundance and depth.
every one
touches all.

this time and space—
this home—
we can still
make it whole;
if we are
all
in.

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