TOMMY watercolor on rag paper. a visual requiem

watercolor on 24x18 inch rag paper. 
by artist Kathy Poitras.  Painted around 1996.  

Tommy is a stained-glass-style watercolor that pulses with sorrow, love, and the aching beauty of remembrance. At its heart is a dancing figure — not just a woman, but a spirit portrait of Kathy’s brother, Tommy, caught in the luminous tension between serenity and struggle.

Split into two expressive halves, the dancer’s left side is shaded in cool blues, her flowing hair and calm gaze evoking the quiet depths of grief and introspection. Her right-side bursts with warm greens and yellows, a joyful defiance that hints at the light Tommy carried even in pain. She stands atop a red spherical platform that fractures into delicate floral patterns — a poignant metaphor for a life unraveling yet still blooming in memory.
Surrounding her is a kaleidoscope of geometric panels, stars, and symbolic shapes. On the left, a blue circle rains tear-shaped droplets — each one a tribute to the sorrow of addiction, the tears shed in its wake. On the right, a heart-like form with a ribbon suggests love enduring beyond loss.

Signed “Kathy” in the bottom right, the painting is both elegy and celebration — a visual requiem for a beloved brother, and a testament to the healing power of art. It invites viewers to witness the duality of joy and grief, and to honor the dance of a soul caught in the web of addiction yet never forgotten.