Day 23 of 33 - Cardinal Rules

For my twenty-third painting of the 33 in the painting-a-day series I am doing with Alaskan Artist Nikki Kinne, I worked with a small texture sheet I had created as an experiment.  I was staring at the sheet, willing an image to emerge, while at the same time thinking about the phrase ‘Cardinal Rule,’ and wondering about where it came from.  The next thing I knew I had this little painting.  It feels like the cardinal is looking a us thinking “Now what are you going to do?” A good question.

By the way, the phrase ‘Cardinal Rule’ did not originate from the office of cardinal in the Catholic Church.  Rather, cardinal derives from Latin cardo “hinge”, so that something cardinal is important because all else hinges upon it.  Therefore, a cardinal rule is a fundamental rule; a cardinal direction is one of the principal directions: north, south, east or west.  The Catholic Cardinal’s name came from the idea that the clergy were the hinge to the church’s door through which people could enter.

The bird IS named after the Catholic church officer that shares its bright red garment color.  Thank you for coming with us as we allow our thoughts to meander and make art out of the results.

You can see all the paintings in this painting-a-day project to date, as well as the paintings done by my collaborator, Nikki Kinne, on my blog here:  http://klebesadel.wordpress.com/