Life is Long Life is Short

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Some images, painted taller than wide, may read better on this website if oriented horizontally. Rotate your laptop or head 90 degrees to view these in the orientation that works for you.

Below, intended order for these paintings.

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Image order for Life is Long Life is Short

(Intermission, BARDO)

1. Flotation Device , 2. BREATHE, 3. SEE?, 4. PLAY, 5. WORDS, 6. SEX (menarche), 7. WORK (hunt), 8. LIBERATION, 9. PENULTIMATE BREATH (ledge)

(Neither realm, BARDO)

1. Flotation Devices, 2. BREATHE, 3. SEE?, 4. PLAY, 5. WORDS, 6. SEX, 7. WORK (Men's work), 8. LIBERATION,9. PENULTIMATE BREATHS (diagnosis)

(In between, BARDO)

1.Flotation Device, 2. BREATHE, 3. SEE?, 4, PLAY, 5. WORDS, 6. SEX, 7. WORK (Women's work), 8. LIBERATION, 9. PENULTIMATE BREATH (Wave)

(Suspension, BARDO)

REPEAT, etc. , REPEAT etc. and so on

There are additional notes and references on this work in the “Swimming in Vitreous Humor” section in Exhibits and Writings,, including a discussion of men’s work and women’s work.

After you have perused the images, if you are on a laptop or a desktop, you can page fast through the sequence continually holding down the left or right/advance keys, to glimpse these lives as a goddess might. I suggest that women hold down the left (backward) key, and men the right (forward) key.

Artist’s questions—

I ask--what makes a human life? Also is there being before or after this life? Where do we come from? Where are we going?

During 2020—2022 I felt compelled to suspend disbelief in my own immortality. This coincided with painting Life is Long Life is Short..

I likewise suspended disbelief in the idea that life recycles. I painted life—lives—with as much phenomenological accuracy as I was able, including some reference to recalled or reconstructed experiences, like memories of learning to talk.

Belief, disbelief, or their suspension may not be all that relevant. Does water require belief to evaporate from the ocean’s surface, rain on the mountain, flow into the river and return to the sea? Can one hope for better at life’s end?

I’ve tried to avoid autobiographical flags, and I do not intend to proselytize. I offer this set of images as a gedanken—a thought experiment— for your contemplation.