democrats and republicans | The Direction of Intention

The Right Season [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on October 2, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

The color of petals at the end of the season. An earthier shade of yellow made more vibrant relative to the purple-black. A kind of beauty that’s possible only in the right season.

I’ve been noodling on a composition-idea for years. Drawings of the theme pock my sketchbooks. I’ve started and erased canvases dozens of times. I don’t know why I’ve been so fixated on it for so long, though now it seems like it was prophetic. The time was not right until now. Polynices and Eteocles. The sons of Oedipus. As the story goes, after Oedipus abdicates his throne, his sons go to war for control of the kingdom. In their lust for power, they kill each other. Both lose. All lose.

How did we get here? Democrats and Republicans. Brothers, forgetting that they are servants of the people, go to war for power over the republic. Both lose. All lose.

It’s the right time to paint this painting. A kind of beauty, if you can call it that, possible only in the right season.

read Kerri’s blogpost about AUTUMN YELLOW

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Find The Doorway In [It’s DR Thursday]

Posted on April 12, 2018 by davidrobinsoncreative

A Doorway In for your Thursday from studio melange.

THISthedoorwayin FRAMED jpeg copy

You learn a lot about yourself combing through old sketchbooks. For instance, I am not a religious person but was gobsmacked to discover that in my life I’ve done hundreds of drawings on the theme of Jacob wrestling with the angel. Why? I had to research the story to have context for the images I’d drawn.

The other theme that populates my sketchbooks is much more conscious. It is… (wait for it…) Polynices and Eteocles. In Greek mythology they are the sons of Oedipus who, rather than share power, kill each other. It is my visual rumination on contemporary politics in America. Here’s the catch. Every time I attempt to translate my drawings of combat into a painting, the process leads me to a loving statement, Shared Fatherhood. I’ve made two runs at it. There are now two versions of my warring brothers turned to adoring parents. What!?

Kerri loves my Shared Fatherhood paintings. She has no idea of their sketchy origin. So, when she chose this week’s morsel from the first Shared Fatherhood painting, exclaiming, “I love this image! I think we should call it The Doorway In!” It jarred me a bit. The Doorway In. She is ever positive.

the first version of Shared Fatherhood, 39.5 x 51IN

I delight in the notion that in my visual meditation, through my hundreds of drawings on warring brothers, I am so incapable of arriving at a painting of mutual annihilation. It is a tired, old story. Rather, my muses, my sketchbooks, lead me to stories of hope for the future and images of quiet adoration. A doorway in.