the woman applying horns

The wife from the Husband and Wife Sleeping series woke up. Once, after the cycling trip, I caught the glimpse of her in the mirror on the way to the shower. She looked wild: all sweaty, red in the face, massed hair, powerful. The painting should be life-size, I thought. I prepared the easel: cleaned and repainted it with the fresh white, and measured a few Mylar sheets 4X6’.  But painting took much longer than I expected. Three weeks of guesswork, repainting, dream-nights, sleepless nights, making final decision to scratch it off next day. Surprisingly, the next day the painting in the Cave didn’t seem failed at all and I carried on: lots of changes, sleepless night with the same decision to scratch it off next day and to start anew, but so it happened that the next day was the day when first thing planned in the morning was the bike ride with the pro. Martin. He had been promising me that ride since forever, to take me to the point where I, the weather permits, will see the Pocono and Philadelphia skylines simultaneously. But right at the start I crushed: a hole in the pavement at the road-turn, down the hill, two sweet smiling toddlers waving their hands to us saying hello: I just took my eyes off the road. The dizziness didn’t last too long and I decided to carry on. The weather was right and we saw the skylines.  On the way to the shower few hours later the reflection was even wilder: scratches, bumps and bruises and the hair a-mass. Chocolate, wine and painting, all my favorite things, but the shoulder was hurting. If you cannot do it out of strength, do it out of weakness. That day, and the next, and I finally finished it. Here it is, The Woman Applying Horns.