NY (5)

Sometimes a given spontaneous combination of expressive actions feels just right.

Sometimes it just feels wrong. 

Visual history of 5th NY-vacation painting start:

just feels wrong and—
oops—horrible indoor lighting

Just-feels-wrong leads to attend-befriend-surrender … and a photo taken in natural outdoor lighting.

Wreckless > Reckless

I start refining the mayhem layers I created the past couple of days.

In no time I consider covering the whole mess with gesso.

But I tap into the notion that this painting is wreck-less, and that viewpoint nudges the needle away from fussy towards reckless.

I throw color onto the 'vase' and scribble all over the 'blossoms' with India ink.

Who knows where this will take me.

Spectacular Solstice

With daylight stretching out endlessly in both directions, I stepped out of time on the solstice two weeks ago for an art playdate with longtime friend Joan at her home.

Sharing a wish to get looser and less fussy in our creativity, we got right down to some laugh-out-loud fun with a whole bunch of commingled art supplies.

The hours flew by, and suddenly there we were with two paintings apiece stuck in rip-roaringly ugly and decidedly unfinished stages.

Our exit plan: (1) select one piece, cut it into quadrants, develop the quadrants into postcards, send the cards to each other by post; (2) get together for a repeat playdate in a few weeks to develop the second piece.

Random process photos:

Leeches

A year into teaching at Landmark School in my early 20's, halfway through working my second summer program there, several colleagues and I grabbed a rare weekend off to head north to Acadia National Park where we took it upon ourselves to hike up a steep trail that overlooked frigid saltwater far below us in one direction and ended near a little freshwater pond at the top. Hot and sweaty, we wasted no time plunging into the refreshment of that little body of water.

Several of us emerged with bloodsucking leeches attached to an arm or leg.

Similarly, I think a leech attached itself to either my current patch-in-progress or to me today. Something sucked the freedom and brightness right out of this piece. 

patch in progress

Stuck in My Head

Painful.

detail from today's patch

Slapstick 12/26/17

I've posted dozens of painting experiments over the past few years, and mostly I've liked them—in large part because it's hard for me to let go of a painting and consider it 'finished' until I like it!

This one doesn't call out to me but, what the heck, I'm posting it anyway.

Internal success: slap it down, let it stick >>> slapstick!

Truth to tell, there are two bits here that appeal to me visually: pale blue scribbles on top of black, textural white lines that could be waves washing onto shore.

Even so, I might throw this one in the trash bin which is surprisingly difficult for me. It'll be a true letting go, if I do.

Started here:

Stopped here:

4x5"; acrylic, India ink, collage, and pastel on paper
abstract
2017

Outer Eye, Inner Eye

My outer eye says, What on earth is that? Total fail.

My inner eye says, Oh. My. Gosh. You nailed it! You have painted a perfect representation of who you are right here and right now. There you are, in paint, on paper. 

---

Alrighty then. Glad I got that out of my system.

work in progress
4x5"; unstretched canvas
working title: q&q cut-up #6