SOUTHWEST YEARS #2 - (JADE YEARS)

 "I think the American West really attracts me because it's romantic. The dessert, the empty space, and the drama." - Ang Lee (Movie director)

 

In the late 1980's to mid-1990's,  I experienced a decade of very devastating, progressive and severe profound bilateral hearing loss. I could no longer hear and understand the TV, phone, movies, answering machine, etc. It was scary that I could no longer understand some people. Most of them sounded mumbling or eating some words. It  was the most challenging and difficult problem I ever faced in life. I tried to withdraw from noisy crowds. Conversations were very confusing in the dense noise. A scary experience. 

TITLE: "A SEASCAPE W/ BOAT"
SIZE: 16" x 20"
MEDIUM: Oil On Canvas
Artist Collection

To help myself from getting depressed w/ my hearing problem, I enrolled at an Art class at the

Senior Center nearby. I also loss my job at TV Fanfare. I went back to my first love and passion ( painting). Although I had been painting before, I got rusty w/ painting. Sadly, I haven't hold my artist brushes for over a decade.

Above was my first oil painting at  the Senior Center Art Class. My first realistic oil painting I did. I copied a canvas for the class to paint. This was my version. Not bad a comeback artist.

What initially became a tragedy, became a blessing and artistic opportunity for me. I always wanted to pursue doing oil paint full-time after retiring at the age of 65. But retirement came to me early at mid-life. I was still young and healthy with many more years to live and paint. My only problem was my difficult hearing loss. It's not life threatening but could knock me down easily when feeling blue.  NO need to HEAR well when painting. What I needed was solitude and a skillful hand.