DEBORAH LEE BAKER, PhD
Abstract painting allows me the perfect medium to process feelings and reflect on life events, and try to arrange them in a coherent manner with the utmost freedom from real world physics. For example, I may pair an object, a feeling, and an aerial scene together that are connected in my mind. Such expressive freedom is one of the greatest joys I know.
Blocked
(Acrylic on Canvas, 36” x 36”)
This painting represents several of the ways in which 2021 felt blocked to me. Initially, I began the year feeling hopeful as Covid vaccines began to roll out and it felt like the world was opening up. But then the Delta variant arrived, and many other pandemic related obstacles followed, from the blockage of the Suez Canal by a container ship, to global shortages of consumer parts and products essential to our modern functioning. Everything was taking longer to arrive, to move forward. Including me. In April, I fell and fractured a bone in my leg, temporarily taking away one of my greatest pleasures, my daily walk. It was a moment to re-align, get patient, and get comfortable with a slower pace. I am still working on it. The block in the canal, the fracture in my leg, and the postponed movement are all represented in this painting.