1.Trees Reflecting
28" x 36"
Mixed Medium on Canvas
2. Blue Mountains with Orange
28" x 28"
Mixed Medium on Wood
These are two new landscapes I finished today, that are based on memory and medium.
I was thinking about my process today while finishing these. Completing a painting is really a creative birth. I have never given birth to an actual human child before...but have birthed many many paintings. A friend of mine once said that right before a painting is finished it practically is destroyed, and I agree with that, but actually I think that its more of a labor, a bloody-scary -fragile-beautiful birth. Each painting starts as a conception of thought, idea and feeling and then you carry it, imagining it, naming it, seeing it, wanting it to be some way...but your never really sure what its going to be, because its divine, and not solely created by you alone. There is definitely another active partner in its creation. So, when its time for the baby to be born, its very scary, things become messy, and feel out of control, and you have to surrender to the fact that the baby is no longer you...it has its own life and identity( carrying your DNA but also a unique pattern), and its pushing free...at this point its very scary! Things look messy and unclear, there are new marks you've never made before, you feel the loss of control...and its also the time when yes, you might loose the painting..its very fragile...but then in a sudden swoop you see the crowning head of this new beauty, and a rush of endorphins comes in and very quickly the painting is done! And then all you want to do is sleep, and wake up and look at your new painting and fall in love.
Another thought I had, is how there really is an archetypal DNA pattern to my paintings...these two new ones seem to replicate those miniature daily drawings I was doing this past June...
