2.16.17

Donation continued/Phase 1

In the first pass I decided to add more shapes in a lighter tone to breakup the "background" color and to try to create some depth. My greatest fear is that it will become muddy as I add more elements to it so I have to remind myself not to stay within a certain color pallet (at this stage). Since I'm going to be glazing (transparent layers of paint washed over other layers) I started with white rectangles, then a maroon triangles, and then orange shapes. Though the final pieces will be two vertical diptychs (20"x48") I've chosen to work on the four panels as a whole at first so that no one panel becomes precious and I can think about using larger elements. I'm keeping a little gap between the panels so paint doesn't sneak in between. I haven't decided if I will hang them attached or with that gap -- depends on the wall and the lighting -- I think.

2.14.17

Donation

I've been asked by a friend to donate some artwork for a fundraising event. It is nice to be asked. It is also important to donate something that could raise a bit of money (and not just clean out inventory!) The event isn't until April so I have some time to work on the two pieces they requested. Two years ago I did a commission for an interior designer who had specific requirements (color, size, design elements). It was interesting to work within those constraints and I was pleased with the final piece. I painted with acrylic paints and relied on glazing to create the effects the designer requested. I haven't done something like that since. This opportunity to donate pieces gave me the opportunity to 1) recycle some work from the past, 2) experiment with glazing, and 3) see what I come up with that might have a more "commercial" appeal than what I currently do.

The original 4 panels from an earlier series

2.12.17

Conversation 2.17 -- Recycling continued/Phase 4

My original thought coming into the studio was to add one more element that would tie everything together. Another strip of yellow dyed cheesecloth pasted over the boxes to create some kind of horizon line. I tried pinning it on. Nope. It wasn't going to work. Instead of trying to fix it by covering things up or adding more pieces I needed to step back and decide what the piece was about.

The cheesecloth -- I liked the texture it created -- and I appreciated the difficulty of working on that surface. (The night before I had considered Robert Rauschenberg's White Paintings as a possible solution.)

The colors -- I liked the primary colors, but there was too much other color and nothing was balanced. They were all fighting with each other.

The shapes -- I liked the gestural elements in the upper half as juxtaposed to the two boxes in the lower half. I also felt committed to the yellow box at the top edge. 

So texture, color, and shape. My intention was to bring those out rather than covering those over. Scissors and white paint became by friend. Fine lines began to emerge. That had been something I had wanted from the start. The colors, though not in big bold blocks, began to communicate to each other. The painting started to have some life -- some playfulness -- rather than just a goldfish bowl sitting on a nonexistent table. Even with all the paint and the heavy texture I'd managed to find the light.

I see a little Miro -- and that makes me happy.

2.11.17

Conversation 2.17 -- Recycling continued/Phase 3

Came to the studio determined to find a solution -- but I kept trying to make the same elements work in the same way. I was not re-conceiving. I was getting trapped in the "fix it" mode. Instead of stepping back I got myopic and started reaching out to a friend for his guidance on how to make it work. I felt like my intention with the piece was missing. Recycling wasn't enough. Making it "prettier" wasn't enough. I had no story to tell with this piece so the conversation was going nowhere. I made the background darker and tried to blend areas that looked muddy by over-screening more cheesecloth. By the end of the studio day I had something that looked like an abstracted still life -- as a friend commented "a goldfish bowl and a potted plant" -- not my intention. 

Ugh!

2.10.17

Conversation 2.17 -- Recycling continued/Phase 2

I cut into the cheesecloth surface. The rectangle at the bottom center caught my attention. I wanted to bring it forward and send everything else to the back. The cheesecloth quickly became my undoing as it absorbed paint and made everything muddy. I had difficulty separating areas.

Not happy.

2.9.17

Conversation 2.17 -- Recycling

From the original 2007 series: The Poet 20"x20" mixed media on canvas

This week I began another series of works -- or should I say I revisited old pieces of work. My studio is full of inventory or physical memories of experiments from the past. One of my promises to myself this year was to recycle some of these memories and see what I could discover. I decided to begin with a series of twelve abstract portrait pieces I had attempted ten years ago. The materials were cheesecloth and acrylic paints. The original idea was to make three dimensional works. Let's say this was not my most popular portrait series. Colorful. Hard to discern. Messy in the execution. They never really pulled together. And -- they were impossible to store. Eminently crushable.

We'll see where it goes.