Painting

On Painting
The time I have with brush and color is spent doing empirical exercise: this works, this doesn’t, this works, this doesn’t, etc., etc. I’m not overwhelmed or depressed (yet) by the fact that there are trillions of combinations of shape, color and form that could produce a “good” or a “bad” painting. On the contrary, I’m still in the stage that gives me great excitement just doing it. I’m good for a few hours of this when I sit down to paint: I leave (the painting studio) pretty much exhausted. I work on many of the paintings I’ve already started -some get only a little bit of rework-others can suffer total repainting. And then there are those that get whited over-s’pose many might consider this a relief-for me it constitutes a failure of this boy’s system!

Something that I’ve learned: NOT to solidly over-paint areas, but leave bits and pieces of undercolor to poke through-there’s a part of me that believes that this is pussyfooting but another part that believes that I’m adding complexity to the work (which doesn’t always add up to be good, but definitely adds layers-literally-to the “meaning” of the work). This mimics the human brain, seemingly fixed on an apparent issue, but underneath the surface working on other thoughts, many of which are half-formed and untranslatable. Sculpture has a harder time at “speaking” in these areas as much of what is created there is physically hard and distinguishable-two or three different planar surfaces do not seem to speak on the same topic or even in the same language. Here is a good argument that sculpture could never have the subtlety of painting. I admit it-I'm a traitor.

Reducing coarser variations.
In what degree do I want to pull away from the dimensionally variable with my newly adopted subject of heads? Thinking through the surface of the head in a painterly way makes subtle variation possible, if in fact not even more variation (being less limited by the mechanics of negotiating terrain). Yet, I can’t imagine giving up the sculptural (and, too true, I’m a painter with little experience) entirely.

But wait, there’s more!
After this is all said and done, I realize that I’m most attracted to sculpture that offers aberration or strangeness: specifically, Terry Turrells’ heads have bits and pieces of wire or metal stuck, nailed or fixed onto them. Bacon melts the head and smears the eyeballs in such a clinical, believable way. Just saw an anonymous artist at the Visionary Museum in Baltimore who’s done ceramic monochromatic heads-many of the features of the head were hinted at, but never quite revealed, adding a pretty disturbing quality to the clay.

*A side note here-
I started this a week ago (right after a painting session), then went away to a show (Baltimore) and was not able to finish my thoughts in a timely manner. I feel like I started these paragraphs with passion, but ended them somewhat mechanically. On a more positive note, while in Baltimore, I had face time with both Turrell's work (don't tell the folks at the museum, but I actually handled the work) and the anonymous ceramicist's heads.