i (i) wrote,
i
i

evolution 9, part 9





jewel asked me this morning what this painting was about. it isn't about anything. as with most of my paintings, it is just about color and design. pageeater's piece was an exception, but only to a point. the people were a beginning, an inspiration for the shape, color and feel of the piece, but after that, it was still constructed from an instinctive feel for where things should go, and which colors belonged. my environment effects the look of a piece, as do events around me, but i am never trying to make a statement or convey a mood. for the most part, any mood or statement perceived is within the viewer, which is as it should be. the only modicum of control i take over the way you see my work is in the decision of "top" and "bottom", and in the naming of the piece. for example, the last piece was called "mask". how many of you saw something completely different before i turned it 90 degrees and titled it? how many struggled to see the image i implied in the name? what if i had named it "bird"? or "conflict"? for a long time i gave my paintings musical names, such as "symphony #3" or "octet". these titles were absract enough to allow the viewer to see whatever they wished, but they were arbitrary, as meaningless as "untitled #1". now, i name pieces spontaneously, based on an idea or image that occurs to me during the process, or some piece of the design that stands out for me. "from chaos" was so named because the painting came out of the personal chaos i was in following 9-11. the difficult thing is, that now that i have told you about it, the way you see the piece is forever changed. in some ways, i prefer that a viewer bring themselves only to one of my paintings, that i don't impose any concept or verbiage on them. still, i want to name them, and if there is that rare story behind it, i want to share it. as usual in my life i am torn between two things. welcome to dave, repository of endless dichotomy.
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  • 12 comments

  • Amanda Gorman

  • Moenia

  • /s

    I am so glad millions of people were convinced not to vote for Kamala because of The Biden administration's support of Israel. Things are so much…