May 23, 2014
This drawing took about 2.5 hours. I erased most of the right-hand side…
I’m at the stage of production for this show that’s the most intense on all levels – emotional, psychological, mental and physical. Each piece has its’ own trajectory and arc, and I work in collaboration with this.
re-building the idea…
There are sixteen different painting ‘trajectories’ to define and follow to completion – in 22 days – if I’m to make my deadline of June 13.
And I shall.
One key tool I use to get this work done in a short time frame is composite studies. This one is a layered mock-up of the painting built from bits of the selfies posted on social media in the past six weeks. It’s about the way we build our faces before we take ourselves into the public. Masks like filters.
I’ve done it before, though not with pieces this large – but hey, it’s good to add a challenge each time. Everyone has a process, or a road to completion, and mine requires utter surrender to the moment I’m in, the mark I’m making, and the reason why. I need to meet myself again and again in all my joy and ugliness, take off all the filters and tell the truth. Then the truth beneath the truth.
‘Clarity’ gains whole new levels of meaning. It becomes something I can taste.
the same painting with corrected drawing. Today I will work with washes to push and pull the images, and knock the whole thing back so the final drawn images can sit on a top layer. They should appear to float in front of the painting…
There are still bank lineups, lessons and rehearsals, concerts, meetings and phone conversations. These are more interesting than usual, since my self-observation has become so finely tuned. The filters I use to get simple tasks done are much more obvious to me, and I know when they’re slipping…. it’s not always appropriate to discuss the psychological effects of spring green when sunlight hits it just so with the person behind the counter who just wants you to pay for your gas.
More soberly – not everyone wants to hear a bald truth, no matter how comfortable I might be with my clarity. Nine times out of ten it’s better to say it with paint.
Next up: #Selfie4: Negative/Positive – 5 feet wide by six feet tall. Should be done in 3 days… or so…
Creativity is like willing oneself into madness – the kind necessary to make something interesting out of wood, canvas, paint, charcoal and …. perception, imagination, intuition, rage, hope, love…. all that.
Just nod and smile. Or better yet, come on over & jump in to an underpainting – I’ll provide the oil pastel & canvas. Mind the lack of filters, though…
I’m loving this.