(Click thumbnails above to view the paintings)

"Growth Type IV" paintings are based on a dream. After painting 3 or 4 of them, I realized the twining flourishes reminded me of the tendrils on climbing vines that often circle around on themselves before successfully reaching out to find a new support. I realized that such reversals are a perfectly legitimate way to grow in the botanic world.

Often we assume that growth must be linear--like a child's growing taller and heavier as she grows up. When I was a child and got frustrated trying to learn a new piano piece, my mother pointed out that growth isn't always "onward & upward;" sometimes you reach a plateau, & you must keep going even though you donh't seem to make any progress. Eventually, if you persist, you will master the task.

An as adult, I found myself stymied again in a different way. I seemed every few years to revisit certain problems I'd been sure I'd resolved forever the last time I dealt with them. It was most annoying and humiliating. Friends I met at a women's retreat in Colorado suggested it wasn't really repetition--I wasn't grinding my way deeper & deeper into a pit. I was tracing a spiral--on a higher plane each time.

It didn't always feel higher, though. So I was still frustrated and discouraged when I had this dream and eventually painted my way to the realization of this 4th type of growth.