Kelly Harrington

Pulled (2009)
acrylic on canvas
24 x 72 in.
$2,800

My marriage was falling apart, my family in chaos, when this triptych was created. I felt like I was being physically and emotionally pulled apart in so many directions by my then much younger children and now ex-husband. When he moved out, I turned the panels of the painting to the wall and haven’t looked since as remembering how he touched me, how he wanted that intimacy, expected it and then made me feel bad for not giving it, was too hard to view. The kids, of course, needed me, but their seemingly incessant demands for my attention were equally exhausting during that turbulent time in our lives.

Being a single 53 year old woman whom has been alone for 8 years now, and who’s young adult kids are not affectionate in nature, I feel the lack of touch more acutely during this time of social distancing. I do not miss those years of discord and upheaval in my life as it was intensely awful in every way. I do, however, greatly miss now more than ever…want, need…being touched in both platonic and intimate ways, of feeling physically connected to another human being.

© Kelly Harrington