This three-piece series, entitled “Breathing Conglomerate Life,” came about through the commission I talked about in an earlier post. My clients settled on the Rorschach-inspired route, so it was from that fork in the road that these paintings came into being.
All three paintings are shown below, and my discussion of the creative process for this work continues beneath.
All paintings measure 38 x 38 inches.
Once Rorschach was made king, I knew I would work in black and white in bold contrast, and that symmetry was a consideration, but not a definite. I also knew that the room where the painting would hang had certain existing design elements; specifically, a honey-wood table, modern black chairs, three translucent, spherical glass hanging lamps, and a large rectangular mirror framed by additional small, square, tiled mirrors. I hope sometime soon I can post a picture of the room with the painting they chose (out of the three) on the wall.
With these initial considerations, I started the next phase of experimentation with brushes, paints, and surfaces. Ultimately, I found the materials I would use: a wonderfully smooth, opaque acrylic black ink, a strong, round-tipped brush and bright white paper.
I made several small paintings at this stage (not shown) and got further feedback from my clients.
Upon reflection, the only way I’ve found to approach an abstract work without noticeably forcing things is to invoke a spirit of surrender, accepting a great deal of uncertainty in whatever appears – but without failing to pay attention to what’s happening! When this balance of attention and acceptance is struck, it gives the work fluidity, without being chaotic, and eventually usually leads somewhere genuinely new and interesting.
So how do I elaborate on the process? It’s not easy to describe everything that went into it, but it’s not entirely unlike baking a cake (..and since I equally love talking about food, I’ll roll with that metaphor.)
I have certain ingredients to work with, the design of the room, the clients’ artistic preferences, gleaned through many conversations, and certain special equipment, my tools and materials, the kind of brush I’ll use, the ink, the paper, and already some knowledge (from trial and error) about how they work together, or “mix.”
Putting the cake in the oven is the alchemical work of the artist, the energy that has to go into it.
From a subjective point of view, the act of painting became an invocation of spontaneous creative forces (riding on the loose ideas and images in my mind) and an endeavor to bring to bear as much of my authentic self as I could in the process. The result, I feel, is a powerful expression of this inner experience and effort. What came about was partly from the conversations we’d had, and partly a personal journey.
The final works may be reminiscent of organic life forms, insect wings, palm fronds, unfurling leaves, embryos, seeds, pebbles, layers of ancient sediment, or veins of precious ore – and perhaps, there’s more. Are these metaphors with meaning in our inner lives? The work is intentionally open, an invitation to find your own personal meaning in whatever you see.