i forestieri, or Diana returns to the valley singing Painting

Oil on linen. While working on this painting I was thinking a lot about the immigrant, emigration; the kind of voyage some of the more intrepid folks among us make, leaving a home to find a home. I was thinking about the courage of people like my great-grandparents who immigrated to the States and changed the lives of all of us descendants. What do you leave behind you? What is so important that you take it, even if you’ll need to carry it a long way? Do you even have anything to bring? Or do you come luggage-less and empty-handed, already having given up (or lost or thrown away) everything for this? I was thinking about the search for a “something” perhaps as yet intangible but certainly “better” or brighter; and about the great escape. I was thinking about both the excitement and the reluctance that might accompany these journeys: all the reasons to go or not to go. I am afraid. I am not afraid. It’s too dangerous to stay. There’s nothing here for us anymore. It’s too dangerous to go. What could possibly be there that we don’t have here? I was thinking about being a stranger and the startling sensation of finding the familiar peeking out at you from the foreign. People are different here but this one looks like that one I knew and this other one laughs like my brother used to. I somehow remember the taste of these warm figs, the smell of this wood burning; the sound of that song. There is also an interesting thing about being a stranger/foreign, not skilled in the language or customs of a place, that leave room in the imagination for stories—guesses as to why something is the way it is here, or what this means; or how this got to be this way or that.

Painting:Oil on Other

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:78 W x 58 H x 2 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.