The Spirits Appeared Via Experimental Techniques (Art in the Time of COVID Pandemic)

 Dwelling Spirits 8"x8" (no longer in inventory)

 Keeping the Spirit Alive 8"x8" (no longer in inventory)

And the Spirits Moved Through 8"x8" (no longer in inventory)

 Acrylic on canvas with Posca pen used for drawing details. 

I had this idea of experimenting with using a brayer to apply the first layer of the paintings in this series. I globbed the paint onto the canvas and spread it with the brayer, spraying water to thin the paint in areas and using the brayer to spread that applied water around. I definitely fell in love with the created textures and, perhaps because it happened so fast, I look forward to creating more brayer paintings, using that at different stages of the painting. 

After the first layer was applied, though, I had to sit back and let the paintings each speak to me. And they definitely had their individual voices that eventually came together for a series. With each, I used the PC-1MR, black acrylic Posca pen (0.7mm, pin type application). I just started drawing shapes, circles, lines, following the texture and letting the concentration of paint determine where I added detail. I had no plan when I started--in fact, I was working so close, I had no perspective, either. I just knew that I wanted to honor the textures in the paint that the brayer left behind. 

Because of COVID times, I know that I have had the survival of humans on my mind, that I've wondered if this would bring out the best or the worst in us as we tried to "avoid the plague," as the saying goes. In the early days, some were so hopeful that we would transcend the tendencies we have that are leading us to our extinction, that we would transform ourselves into beings of higher consciousness because we would finally grasp some understanding of our place on this planet. 

But you know, sometimes we can't get out of our own collective way. So that was the spirit that found itself in the lines and concentration of drawings I created on that first layer of paint in each painting. As I look at these finished pieces, it's seeming like our collective house remains to stand, and we move into its recesses, until we are gathered into its most ancient and rawest form, searching for and finding a way to transcend and transform. The spirit sustains and remains individually and collectively.