The Missing Piece. #26 in the kimono series

We all have something missing in our lives that we wish would come back “just like it used to be:” a person, a feeling, a precious something, a home, a family, security, good health, a pet…. That thought has been a little voice humming a tune in the background like a “sticky tune” that won’t go away.  Something is gone and we either accept and adapt or we stop in our tracks and wither up.  Every one of us has something/someone we don’t have any more and won’t ever have again.  That thought became yet another kimono in my series in a particularly playful way that involves a jigsaw puzzle and a cat.

Historically, I have not been particularly fond of jigsaw puzzles. In spite of…..or pehaps because of that, I was gifted with one with 500 pieces in a complicated and colorful image (much better than the 1000 pieces that I attempted to tackle the previous winter!)  I decided I would give it an honest try. Puzzle time became a regular autumn evening event. I surprisingly found the time to be wonderful  thinking time which gradually turned that “sticky tune” into a kimono image that I would paint right on the completed puzzle.

I noticed that my curious cat, Katy, took some interest in it also to the point that now and then I would find her walking off with a puzzle piece between her teeth.  That made me aware that it would be highly possible that despite my clever efforts to protect them, some of the pieces could be someplace else than the desk where I “puzzled.”

As the last pieces were going in to place, it became clear that Katy, had, in fact, removed a strategic piece and hid it behind a cabinet or under a rug or wherever cat toys go. The connection between my my musings and the puzzling reality became obvious:  Katy and I had collaborated on a kimono!

Watercolor would not cover the puzzle design, so I coated the puzzle with gesso and used gouache, a water medium but much more opaque that my typical transparent watercolor.  I wanted to push into a new direction and took inspiration from a cloth kimono that I made in 1982 (long before this series began) and hangs on my studio wall, using the images of flowers on a simple background, trimmed in metallic gold; a simple, soft and gentle design…..with one piece missing.