Life, Passion, Blood, Love, Heat, Anger, Fire, Energy, Power, Strength, Pain, Warmth, Fierceness, Danger, Courage, Attention, Stop….
No other color seems to evoke such strong reactions. No other color implies the danger and the forbidden in the same way, draws our attention and asks us to proceed…if at all…with caution.
In 2005 the figure in “Ties That Bind” appeared on my canvas. Nestled in a cushion of red foliage veins seems to encircle and hold her. To counteract the fiery nature I envisioned for my next painting a quiet, inward drawn female figure. I saw her painted in a tranquil blue, calm, cooling and introspective. Except, she rejected the blue. She wanted red, demanded it and of course, got what she wanted. There she was, my Dragon Lady, not drawn inwards, but rather keeping her back turned on the world, filled with energy, barely contained. She demanded my attention and until today, I still give it to her, a reassuring pat on the back…It is alright, I say.
That was the beginning of my series of red paintings. Red paint wanted to be used, and so I complied. Red dresses appeared, which wanted to be tried on. Figures wanted to rest on red and be surrounded by it. Red landscapes appeared to remind me of long distances which want to be crossed. Red earth cracked to prepare for emergence and new growth.
In the beginning of 2008 plants started to push through dark reds and into the light. The female figure shed her red skin and revealed the layers underneath. Finally she left the red behind and stepped out, into a brilliant blue.

February 2008
Susannah Jackson