As I watched the total eclipse without need for my eclipse glasses, and turned in a circle to witness the sunset that was suddenly happening in the middle of the day all around me, and heard the crickets and cicadas going bananas, the enormity and the power of it all struck me.

This thing that we cannot control was so big. This thing that we all had to wait for captivated.
Down to the second, a world of spoiled humans, who have Amazon Prime 2-day shipping, movies “On Demand”, Skip, Next, Pause and Fast Forward, Fast “FOOD”, Line-Jumper passes at theme parks, liposuction!!
If you have enough money, you can have anything you want immediately. But not this 🙂

This WHOLE nation, which revolves around instant gratification….. we waited. Anticipated. Mother nature!!!!!
And when it was done, there was no replay. 99.9% of us didn’t even have cameras capable of capturing it. All you have is that moment in your memory. It was so PURE!!!

You’re welcome for your 2 mins and 41 seconds of awe, says Mother Nature. Don’t forget to appreciate your next rainbow and sunset, your oxygen and water and trees, please. That 2 minutes and 41 seconds was so much more satisfying than any Skip, or Next Day Delivery, or any of the instant gratification hacks that control our lives.

All of my paintings on wood expose and accentuate the wood grain, because it’s beautiful. I can’t recreate it.

Each piece on wood is a collaboration piece between me and mother nature. Two artists, two styles, different mediums. I honor her talent and her work.

So, I stained the wood grain of this piece, but I stained it the color of dusk.
I’d had this idea for months, and wanted to finish it BEFORE the eclipse, but I am so glad I didn’t have time! Originally, I didn’t know if I wanted to black out the eclipse, or maybe the sky.

As I watched the eclipse with my naked eye (I drove 5 hours with my family to the path of totality!) I knew the right decision was to keep the wood grain in the sky. I made a stain the color of the sky at total eclipse. It wasn’t quite night, but it was a washed out shade of indigo that all of nature respected. Crickets were chirping and the birds went crazy.

><<<Read my previous post for tips on how to achieve the stained look.>>><

I hope I never forget that shade of blue.
That moment that wasn’t made by me, can’t be recreated by me.
The best I can do is stain a piece of wood the color of dusk during an eclipse.  And I must let mother nature do the rest. This is our collaboration piece.

A Fleeting Moment
Acrylic on wood, 11×14″

This piece was hung in the Zhou B arts Center in Bridgeport, as part of the Rooted: Offerings to Mother Nature art show. Sep 2015.

The piece is depicting a Luna moth flying in front of the Sun, in total eclipse. I chose the Luna moth, because they worship the Moon goddess, and they mostly fly at night. Because they only live in adulthood for about a week, and their beauty and lifespan are almost as fleeting as the eclipse.

This piece has been SOLD.
Prints, notecards, pillows, mugs and other items printed with this gorgeous image can be found in my  Etsy store.