Light of Dusk Series Statement

To create the images for the Light of Dusk Series, I regularly visited a progressive care home to sketch the elderly 80-107. The aged are in the home because family members no longer can physically, financially or mentally care for them. Once they entered, the doors to exit will likely mean the end of life.

As I began to observe them, there were similarities. Most of them were quiet and to themselves, passive to each other's presence. Although they were never alone, they seemed deeply lonely. Like flowers lacking water or sunshine, their bodies drooped over their wheelchairs as if wilting. And like a single fragile flower gently placed in a vase, others were arranged on a single bed. Many could not see, hear, speak or move. The television blared; no one watched. They had a schedule, but it was not their own. Waiting was his or her only option and often no one came. Time was all they had yet they had not much time.

This series began with my own father in a care home. On my first visit, the sight, smell and the emotional ambience of the care home was all too familiar. Like many others, he was once self-reliant but had slowly faded into a setting of total dependence. Here at this juncture is where all of life's human resistance, pride and privacy are relinquished. In their youth their worth was expressed in beauty and abilities. Now their youth has passed, beauty has faded and abilities lost. What value do they hold today?

Looking into the face of death, the aged holds on to old memories sweetened with time. They must adapt without complaining for they know that the world may not care and no one comes to tell them otherwise. Aging has no prejudice of race or gender. Death is approaching and they have witnessed many who have passed before them.

It has been said that life is a journey. If so, then where is the destination? As a newborn baby journeys into a new life, could death mean a journey into another domain?

It is common for my work to begin analytically. However, without exception, each piece finishes intuitively. I paint in the medium of oil and the images are life-sized. As the series evolves, the work touches on the different facets of the elderly and reflects the depth of my thoughts and responses to their private world. In this world there exists an intersection of dignity, fragility and worth; the inhabitants are treasures to few and comfortably forgotten to most.