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In these new paintings I am using forms of the body – sometimes literally and sometimes in a more distilled way – to explore a living beauty that is irregular and idiosyncratic. The paintings are multi-layered spaces or surfaces, like transparent layers of skin where things like spots, lines, and drips pass over, under, and through, sometimes touching at precise points. The process with which I work has aspects of both possibility and purpose as I look for the perfect line that stretches to simply describe voluminous forms in which layers of sensations or experiences float and intermingle.
In my studio I am constantly working with the materiality of the paint and how it is applied: how a splash of liquid evokes a special fleeting sensation where a slowly spreading pool alludes to a more controlled, distant awareness, maybe even a sense of dread; how one line may assert its way around a curve while another may stretch to hold back a space warming with dots. Color is crucial as well, as color juxtapositions carry memories and strong associations. For example, I found of a particular egg-yolk yellow against a gray to give such a bright sensation alongside a heavy blood red. For the past eighteen years I have continually worked with a monolithic presentation of the body. The pieces could be tiny or huge, but this singular, symmetrical bigness dominated my vision. While this continues to interest me, I have more recently become fascinated with the detail, the variation, the momentary. The new paintings evoke a highly personal point of view. They come from a place of familiarity. All senses may be urged into awareness as one looks at edges, follows lines, and enters forms. Through the eyes, one could taste a color or feel the throb of a pulse through a line of paint. Spaces may resonate with sound and colors may seem to have a certain consistency. The paintings are understood through these kinds of sensory experiences as simply as a parent understands the touch of a child’s hand on his or her face. It is an experience that is at once physical, emotional, spiritual, momentary, small, and wonderfully powerful. July 2005 |
