Through the Spyglass 1 and 2

Through the Spyglass 1

18"x18" acrylic and Posca acrylic pens on canvas

(No longer in inventory)

Through the Spyglass 2

18"x18" acrylic and Posca acrylic pens on canvas

(No longer in inventory)

I am re-working a series of 4 paintings that were initially created in a time of chaos. But the paintings were too chaotic to find a way into and throughout. They were composed of light gesso washes, gesso, perfect grey, red, violet, and a little gold. They were created in a time when I felt like the universe was taking me for a nauseating spin. So they were not easy paintings for anyone to look at. Created years ago, no one even commented on them as they hung on my studio walls. 

So recently, I had the idea to cover the compositions with blue-green that I had mixed too much of for my last completed painting. I felt calm, like I could create something meaningful from the chaos. Since the compositions were circular in form, I had the idea that it was if I were looking at chaos through a spyglass. I broke down the larger forms with small marks using the Posca pens. It was fun to spontaneously follow the acrylic paint marks that lay under the surface of the blue-green. Interlocking forms emerged in the light-dark dynamic. There's a lot for me to learn in the process. (I'm calling it "exploring the spontaneous quirk.") There's a lot for me to learn in seeing and accepting the chaos, in transcending and transforming.

 

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.

It's an Ancient Conversation~Dona Nobis Pacem (Grant Us Peace)

Mixed media on canvas with acrylic 30"x24" (No longer in inventory)

Somehow, this painting became about the elements: fire, water, earth, air. I saw the potential of conflict between two beings engulfed in and separated by these elements. Somehow, a spirit guide emerged, possibly the one who could grant the requested peace. And somehow, after much, much grappling with truth and spontaneity and their consequences, this painting finished itself. The only thing I intended when I began was to have that block in the lower left represent ancient text (a created element that I've since learned is called asemic writing). Somehow, in some abstract way, that block of text explains the ancient conversation. But we know that conversation if we just listen--throughout the ages, it's been churning below and sometimes above, an ultimate yearning to be granted peace...

Working title "Burning Down the House" (actual titles forthcoming)

(no longer in inventory)

Where the previous series is rubbings, these are stampings. I used some of the same tools: knitting needles, remote control, silverware, silverware drawer organizer, knitted dish cloth, door jamb bits, and that bracelet my daughter was going to throw away. And I couldn't escape the idea of burning it all down and flowing in the water. One of the artists in the Waterfront Artist Studios building said it looked like something was blooming. Yes an opening up of the truth. A burning of what we don't need, a cleansing, a budding and flowering of the beauty that remains. More transcendence and transformation.

Embattled Titans

(not finished image--no longer in inventory)

acrylic 20"x28"

En-raged one night

Ex-pressed onto canvas the next

A knitted dishcloth soaked in perfect grey

Water squirted without thought

A choke chain stamped in red

Orange and a touch of yellow wheeled in

Compliments added

Compassion now fills the emptied space.

Splitting the World Open (this was a WIP title. Actual titles forthcoming)

Looks are deceiving here--someday, I'll get the technology figured out. The square paintings are 18"x18" and the rectangular are 18"x27". I haven't decided the order of the paintings yet. The process started for each painting as a rubbing of items that were symbolic of my childhood and the things that hook us as adults so that we go back to that child self. I was looking for transcendence and transformation. The title comes from a Muriel Rukeyser quote: What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open.