Spirit of Elijah

The young woman in the painting is Starr's daughter Kristen.  Starr is using her for her model, as she often does with family. As a young child Starr remembers how important family was to her. The objects on the table in this realism art are representative of - Starr's ancestry. - The genealogy can be read if looked at closely Each object of this realism art painting represents something . The address on the letter under the black silk scarf is Starr's Grandfathers penthouse studio in NYC.  It is unusual for Starr to use this much black! - The color black is sensual, mysterious and secretive. The flowers are representative of feminity, and the celebration of womanhood. The red flowers are pure sensuality. There are many kinds of flowers.

There is a book with a black and white photo, it is a Bust of Starr's Grandmother Stella. The article in the Magazine is of Starr's Famous Grandfather, C.S.Pietro (The Sculptor). The eyeglasses on the table belongs to Stella. The letter under the eyeglasses is a letter to her from Italy.  The lace on top of the table of the painting represents feminity. 

The lace is under all the objects that represent the family, it does not just intake Starr herself this time,  but embodies all the woman in her family. The Torah and the commandments are also part of Starr's ancestry. The tapestry in the background of this realism art has a horse,  the horse was carefully placed as it is the symbol for hope.  Starr would dream of white horses, they were her mental refuge from her imperfect childhood.

As a young girl with polio in a body cast she dreamed of them, and they filled her mind, they took her to exciting and beautiful places. They would take her mind off the pain and despair. When one studies the hints given, you may start to put together a large elaborate puzzle.From this point you need to fill in the blanks, search and you will find the definitions and meaning to this painting by this creative realism artist.

The Greetings

Starr was five years old, or younger, when horses became her first love. She dreamed of them constantly, flying away into the sky. Riding on their backs into the clouds, Always wishing and hoping to have one of her own someday. When she was almost six years of age her mother came home with a newspaper article with a picture of a white horse on the front page. “ "I can't even remember why the horse was on the front page. All I could think about is that I wanted a white horse from that moment on”! Every time my family saw a horse on television or passing them in our car while we were joy riding, my mom would say look there's a horse. I started drawing horse at a very early age. At twelve years old she sold her first painting for five dollars, and of course it was a horse drawing. She would go to the Picwik Stables in Burbank, CA, and would ride bareback.

At the end of her twelfth year she had to have surgery as she had polio when younger. She had to stay in a cast for two and a half years. In that time she dreamed, hoped, and prayed for a horse, a white horse to come and fly her away to a safe and beautiful place full of trees and mountains, with green foliage.

During that time all she did is paint and draw horses. Her mother and grandmother were her champions and encouraged her to become an artist like her grandfather ( C.S.Pietro) whom she had never met. He had died when he was but thirty-two years old of the great influenza of 1918. I had always known that I wanted to be an artist. It seems strange to me when someone says they don't know what they want to be or do? I come from four generations of artists that we know of, maybe more.

I was quite blessed and found an old master to teach me, Emile Nizet. He This old master could hardly speck English. For four years I was a hard working pupil. Absorbing everything he taught me. I had gotten married and I loved being a mother, but never forgot that I was an artist. That was when I got my first horse. We saved her. She was very skinny and ribs were showing. The owners were not good to her. We bought her that very day and brought her home. .

I have had horse's ever since. I have owned at least ten horses since then. In the horse drawing “The Greeting” That is Fair Lady and Ahab's sire. (The first of a series, of the legacy of Ahab.) Ahab has been my horse since he was a born. Ahab is my white horse that I dreamed about when I was only five years of age. He is my baby for real. When he was but six weeks old his mother (Fair Lady) died of colic.

So I became his mother and he thought I was. He followed me everywhere. I would come in the front gate and he would spot me from about five acres away and he would start running towards me. I remember thinking “ is he going to stop?” He is twenty-five years old now. He has been a great horse, and friend. He has been a great inspiration, because of his beauty. I use him in my paintings and drawings all the time and will the rest of my life.