What is Halloween to you?
All Saints Day Eve?
An excuse to party?
Celtic Harvest Festival?
All-American prank night?
For me, it is bonding night with my sister,
a fellow non-conformist on spooky "holy" days.
Call us weenies and pelt us with candy corn
if you will, but the sisters won't bob for apples
or hang skeletons in the windows.
We're pretty thrilled to see November 1st arrive.
This painting "Halloween" above
I love it in spite of it triggering sadness.(It stirs up childhood Octobers...
I always masqueraded with the throng,
but what an overwhelming day it was for such a
sensitive soul with no appetite for haunted mansions.)
I wonder...what has stolen the goblin's attention
in Bartlett's costume parade and what would
possess (see what I did there?) the young girl on right
to decide "YES, red Converse and Satan it is!"??
Are his paintings realist or surreal?
I don't know, but they're alive.
Maybe Bo Bartlett fills his lungs
with magical air he collects in the world,
and exhales a measure of it on the canvas.
In this podcast, hear the artist speak about a number
of intimate things (he mentions Ken Wilber,
whose Kosmic Konsciousness is blowing
my frackin mind at the moment)
and see America and beauty
unfold in a film called "See" made
with wife Betsy Eby, a genius frequently
appearing on Hello Lovely who creates
the most romantically lyrical paintings
with fire and knives.
Let's tour of some of Bo Bartlett's recent handsome work
(and I have sneaked in images of
the artist's tools of the trade and studio).
See more work from Bo Bartlett on his site.
Which of these paintings is your favorite?
Peace to you right where you are.
