Monday, July 6, 2015

following the flow 1.0

I had a bit of a fall in the Fall of 2014 and couldn't hold a brush.



This is how it ended up. 
High-fiving the Alien in the living room in a purple cast.
Me in the cast, not him. I'm the one on the left.  

And yes, I am human. I did get a bit cranky.  
I had a show coming up and had scheduled a bunch of painting time
and had that intensely edgy feeling that signals the need to paint.
Stupid thumb.

It didn't dawn on me that maybe this was 
one of those things that would change my art. 
Maybe even my life.  
I just had to get some paintings done, 
and they had to be good.

I'd been exploring, testing, playing and teaching using 
to make small, luminous, motion-filled paintings.  

Time to order a bunch of cradled board from my friend at 
Hired a young friend to gesso the boards.
Ordered a couple of gallons of pouring medium.
Got tarps (lots) and the largest latex gloves I could find.

It got kind of exciting.



Had to go back for the largest janitorial rubber glove I could find, 
split it down the side and duct-taped it together 
(with purple duct tape).

You'll just have to imagine it.  
I was too busy painting and way too into it to take pictures.

Then I started on big squares.  
Man, those knocked my socks off - and were super challenging, 
to try and create a solid composition within a square, 
interrupt circular references and create places 
for the eye to travel along,
 all within the constraints of a fun but tricky medium -
milky fluid that hides what is below and sort of shows what floats 
(the benefit of a couple years of experimenting!!). 



Cool, huh?

Intense yumminess. 
That sense of aliveness, being one with the paint, 
inside art with the art, 
me and the art and then it's just the art (thanks Aubrey Flack).  

Only got a little paint on the cast.  
Got a bunch on my tarps to strip off and 
give to my friend, Virginia, who uses them to make collages.  
More about Virginia later, you'll love her.

And later, I'll post more about the method, 
give you a little DIY tutorial 
and more about following the flow ... 
catch up a little on my belated blogging.

The takeaway here is - sometimes things that are 
painful on the surface help define us, show us a new path.
Open a new door.  
At least, that's my takeaway.
...walking through the open doors....

-linda



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