Together we can create an oasis
As we share our dreams for what we’d like our summer to look like, perhaps we’ll come across a place that has everything we need, even as we think about what we’d been hoping and dreaming for; about what might have been.
This image, “Desert Queen Motel,” painted by Stratford, Ont. artist Janet Hill, is filled with humour and whimsy. A woman incongruously wheels her flowered suitcase filled with expectations hinted at by her Parisian dress; her expression seems to say “you’ve got to be kidding” as she approaches a motel that looks a dream. The idea behind this particular piece, says Hill, was to capture a lone female traveller coming across a motel offering everything that she was looking for, almost as if it were a mirage.
The images in this painting playfully mingle with each other: the neon motel sign and the camping trailer referencing the past — an echo of pining for a world that was once familiar. But there’s also a sense of “Well, what have we here?” An incongruous red carpet is rolled out in welcome, a curious lizard has come to greet. Even in this lonely desert, life’s an adventure. Let’s rule it.
As we venture outdoors, on to front porches, and sidewalks, into parks and streets, we might discover that, although it might not look the way we expected, the world we need is ours to create — together.
Janet Hill is an illustrator, a fashion painter, and writes and illustrates kids’ books, too. Her latest one is a supernatural thriller for teens “Lucy Crisp and the Vanishing House.” Learn more about her art at janethillstudio.com