Between the Kiss

About this Work

A simple scene… a poor farmer and a perfect maiden, kissing. Or… a dread pirate and - still a perfect maiden? Or - a tattooed-with-my-own-artwork samurai and the Queen of the Underworld? And why this small monkey in the mix?

It wasn’t until after I’d finished this piece that I realized - a layer deeper - what was going on here. My own romantic leanings - a childhood of longing and looking for “the idealized other” - mixed up with a big dose of lifelong nervous-system-regulation-challenge.

Meaning: a situation in which I’m both hoping to “complete” myself through total union with another (the storybook story), while also needing desperately to increase my capacity to self-regulate, not just enduring the challenge of my alarmed and crazy-sensitive nervous system - but also be kind to it. Kind to myself.

And by painting it, making it all more real. The inner work, the soul work, the human work.

So… Between the Kiss. Translucency. Brightness. Saturation. The passion of the lovers, the romance - and also a deep bond, a security. All the parts of us, even the littlest parts of us, have a place here. A golden light shines through us and through everything.