'Looking for Happy'
by Paula Peacock
24" x 30"
Oil on Canvas
In 2014, my little sister lost her battle to breast cancer at the age of 51. Five months later I received a call from the Denver Coroner telling me my son had been murdered. Two days after that horrific phone call came yet another; local police informed me my art studio had been broken into and vandalized. Five of my paintings had been damaged or destroyed. Needless to say, major depression took over my life and I embarked upon a 5-year journey of creating dark paintings and sculptures as my way of expressing my grief. This is one of those paintings-
The Buddhas depicted are known as the Happy Buddha. In this painting, they remain somewhat hidden, in the shadows or behind objects. This is representative of a search for happiness but not quite finding it. One feels it’s just around the corner but never fully in view.
The string is our connection to the different aspects of our lives that define our happiness. Life is represented by the twig of small flowers, not in life-sustaining water, but in cold marbles. The twig has been cut from its’ Mother tree.
The two hanging pendants, one the Endless Knot representing a connection and link with our fates and karmic destiny and second, the Golden Fishes symbolize happiness. The Asian vase, for the most part, is random Chinese characters. But, at the bottom of the centerline are characters representing ‘Mother’ and ‘Warrior’. The left vertical line actually says ‘Christopher’ in English followed by the symbol meaning ‘Son’.
The singing bowl at the top is purposely left vague indicating a silent song or nothing to sing about and the teapot is representational of a hope for emotional healing herbs.
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