Continuing with the 72" x 60" format, I wanted to let loose on the canvas and be as free as possible. I also didn’t want to fall in love too quickly with this painting, instead pushing it to go beyond the initial bones and structure that emerge early.
The subject developed as the painting grew through an intuitive process of laying down color.
The shapes that emerged tell a story of a world beyond language, space, and time: a new dimension of existence.
I threw paint on the blank canvas as the beginning marks, letting the shapes drip paint down the canvas. I chose different places on the canvas that felt like they would make a good composition without knowing what would happen or what the paint would do.
This piece fits my other work, especially the size of the last two paintings, 72" x 60", a size I have discovered that I love. Also, as I continue to get acquainted with this size, each one so far feels like a new world, like some new place that provides more pieces to the puzzle of life.
The shapes held together by strong, rough black lines, which delineate spaces on the picture plane, make the entire composition unique.
I invite the viewer to step inside this world beyond language, space, and time and experience a new dimension of existence. Then, ask how different they feel after traversing this new world. What did the painting offer them?
This piece was all about taking things off the painting and then putting them back. It was like an experiment to see what really needed to stay and what could go. As I painted over areas, I saw that the painting needed them, so I put them back. This happened several times throughout the painting process. It was like that old saying that you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. And luckily, with painting, one can recall it and bring it back. Yet, it’s altered and becomes different through the experience. It can never return to the exact way it was. And through the destruction and recreation, something new emerges. Other places around those places become transformed in the process too.
The back and forth of painting made me uncertain until the very last strokes. The orange squiggles were the final touch. They made me smile, and I knew it was complete. It was as if I painted the entire painting to house those orange squiggles. They light the whole composition.
