ONE OF A KIND… (OOAK) collectible hand-painted stone, adorned with symbols of love and the whispers of past relationships.
WHEN I’M PAINTING… I have the stone I’m working on, a.k.a. my canvas, and the stone I use as a palette. This ‘palette stone’ sits to my right and is used for working out the kinks in the pens, which tend to clog, especially when layering.
IN THE BEGINNING… when this stone got covered in scribbles and doodles and such like, I would wash it off in order to start over – a clean slate, a clean stone. But then I started to see beauty in these unintended marks. They told another tale; one I hadn’t consciously intended. Like channelling, I guess – more dreamscape than sea- or land-scene. And dreams and the subconscious fascinate me and have always featured strongly in my work.
SO I BEGAN… to use the unconscious marks as a base, and then create a conscious set of marks on top of them.
👈🏻 This stone belongs to this series.
I LOVE THAT… it is vibrant and full of energy. That it explodes with colour. That it contains plenty of movement, with things flowing outwards from a central point. It is a blend of symbols – dots, crosses, lines and hearts – each mark a whisper of something felt but perhaps not said; silent pieces on a board waiting for the next move.
THE WHITE HEARTS… float like ghosts, echoes of past relationships that, for some reason, have ended. Unrequited love, friends who come and go, pets whose lives are fleeting; teachers, mentors, relatives, flings…
THE RED SINK DEEPER… more engrained, speaking of love relationships. One present and trying to find its place. Another marked with an X, so clearly null and void – alas, or perhaps not?
I COULD HAVE… called it “A history of love”, “The ones that got away”, “The tears I’ve wept for you”. But I didn’t. I left it open, so that you could decide.
NAUGHTS, CROSSES
AND WHITE GHOST HEARTS
Vibrant whispers, silent cries –
A burst of colour beneath the skies;
Lines that dance and hearts that roam,
Symbols of love etched into stone.
White hearts drift like faded dreams,
Fragments lost in quiet streams;
Friends that left, and loves that bled –
Ghosts of words that went unsaid.
Reds sink deep, a burning thread,
Of passions lived and tears once shed;
One love still seeking where it fits,
Another crossed, yet never quits.
A canvas spun from moments missed,
From fleeting lives and stolen trysts;
A silent story left untold,
A vibrant map of hearts grown cold.
This stone, an open, waiting page –
A vibrant scar, an empty stage;
To hold the past and not quite yet,
A tale of all we can’t forget.
👉🏻 WHO ARE… these hearts in your story?
👉🏻 HOW HAVE… they touched upon and engraved into your life?
👆🏻 I HOPE YOU… find as much pleasure in gazing into this stone as I did in painting it.
👉🏻 INSPIRED BY: Jungian Psychology, The Tarot, dreams and dream analysis, relationships, loss, love, and a love of painting dots and hearts and etching pieces of my life onto stone.
DIMENSIONS:
• Pebble: 6.5 x 5cm; 2.6 x 2in
MATERIALS:
• Posca Paint Pens
• Baker Ross Multi-Purpose Acrylic Craft Varnish
PLEASE NOTE: this is not a toy, it is delicate, it is meant for ornamental purposes only. If you do happen to drop or accidentally scrape or chip it, you may revarnish it with a thin layer of clear gloss varnish, making sure to allow significant time for it to properly dry. If you get it covered in dirt, grime or drool, you may gently wipe or rinse it. Deeper damage may require touching up the image with paint pens and then revarnishing. Rest assured, most minor incidents can be rescued, but the responsibility lies with you.
🔒 © Rebecca L. Atherton | All Rights Reserved, 2024.