SL Baker Paintings Collector's Catalogue

SL Baker

Paintings

The images that appear on SL Baker's canvases are a confluence of mindfulness studies and social concern. Working mostly in acrylic and without the use of brushes, Baker paints with her hands.

The paintings reference a world view and give a nod to Buddhist practice. The work seems a spiritual query.

SL Baker was born in Princeton, NJ and has been a life-long resident of the local NJ and PA area. She was a public school educator for thirty years and has been a self-employed artist for two decades. Baker is a published poet and lyricist. - SL Baker

www.slbakerpaintings.com / email: gardenslb@gmail.com

@slbakerpaintings

48

SL Baker Paintings

City Day, by SL Baker, is a view from above as in passing the city on bridges, from an apartment or glimpses from the Palisades.

"The island of Manhattan gathers light like no other. The rays and shadows provoke an announcement of something. After looking through a series of photos from childhood, the paintings City Day and City Night arrived on my canvases. Memories of car and train rides from New Jersey to the city focus on the thrill of expectant possibilities. The city's approach still conjures great expectations. These paintings offer a remark of that familiar charge and a gesture toward probing inner goodness and darkness." -

SL Baker

www.slbakerpaintings.com

/ email: gardenslb@gmail.com

@slbakerpaintings

SL Baker Paintings

City Night, by SL Baker, is the city's intrigue of shadow, tension, and ease of a ray.

"The island of Manhattan gathers light like no other. The rays and shadows provoke an announcement of something. After looking through a series of photos from childhood, the paintings City Day and City Night arrived on my canvases.

Memories of car and train rides from New Jersey to the city focus on the thrill of expectant possibilities. The city's approach still conjures great expectations. These paintings offer a remark of that familiar charge and a gesture toward probing inner goodness and darkness." - SL

Baker

www.slbakerpaintings.com

/ email: gardenslb@gmail.com

@slbakerpaintings

SL Baker Paintings

This painting came to be when the 2010 earthquake hit Haiti.

The beautiful, humble country and its people have never fully stabilized. It seems a metaphor.

There are such rigors necessary in any human recovery. There is the dichotomy of devastation and the possibility of great relief and beauty. - SL Baker

www.slbakerpaintings.com

/ email: gardenslb@gmail.com

@slbakerpaintings

SL Baker Paintings

What do we perceive as sacred? Is everything sacred? There is the belief that passing through a torii gate one leaves behind temporal life and enters into a knowingness that everything can be seen as sacred. A gate seems to be a reminder to pay attention.

- SL Baker

www.slbakerpaintings.com

@slbakerpaintings

Acrylic

SL Baker Paintings

The devastating Tohoku earthquake in 2011 generated JAPAN. Its torn and scratched paint and canvas are intentional.

It seems the anguish of helplessness. - SL Baker

www.slbakerpaintings.com / email: gardenslb@gmail.com

@slbakerpaintings

SL Baker Paintings

The scratches on COMMUNITY are intentional and were made using a crumpled sheet of copper. There is belief that the metal offers positivity and goodness.

Community is inherently good, capable of positive change.

- SL Baker

www.slbakerpaintings.com / email: gardenslb@gmail.com

@slbakerpaintings

SL Baker Paintings

As a day is lived, a continuous process of events and moments occur. Each are accompanied by emotions, some positive, some not so much. Scientific research has revealed that an emotion lasts for approximately 90 seconds wherein the most profound feelings are sensed. It is possible to notice when emotions arise and be still with them without immediate reaction. A pause in an emotional event or moment allows analysis of what is going on and offers choice for response. Discerning the arising and falling away of a moment takes practice and curiosity.

-

SL Baker

www.slbakerpaintings.com

/ email: gardenslb@gmail.com

@slbakerpaintings

SL Baker Paintings

MINDFULNESS

Acrylic on Canvas

30 x 24 inches

Signed “SLB” lower right

2010

www.slbakerpaintings.com

SL Baker Paintings

"Mindfulness" was born in a dream. As with most works, I do not remember painting it. It might speak of stillness and, perhaps, a wish for a luminous perspective.

I like the idea of remembering to pay attention to things just as they are. - SL Baker

www.slbakerpaintings.com

/ email: gardenslb@gmail.com

@slbakerpaintings

UNTITLED

Acrylic on Canvas 30 x 40 inches

Signed “SLB” lower right 2018

URBAN BLUES

GLIMPSE speaks to impermanence and the elusive nature of mind. - SL Baker

SL Baker Paintings

Acrylic on Canvas

40 x 30 inches

Signed “SLB” lower right

2017

www.slbakerpaintings.com

GLIMPSE

SL Baker Paintings

In Zen Buddhist painting, one studies with a master to practice the seemingly simple stroke. An enso can become an effective visual image in meditation. There is not a specific placement of it in art. It is not a religious symbol. Traditionally, an enso has an accompanying inscription, the most common of which is “What is it?”

After a particularly frustrating afternoon of study, I needed a little comic relief and to not take practice of mindfulness and, life in general, so seriously. Jump In appeared and relieved the tension. - SL Baker

www.slbakerpaintings.com

/ email: gardenslb@gmail.com

@slbakerpaintings

SL Baker Paintings

The catastrophic oil leak that occurred on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 generated SPILL.

- SL Baker

www.slbakerpaintings.com / email: gardenslb@gmail.com

@slbakerpaintings