The Embedded Form
Recently someone told me that my paintings are about people. And then added: the human form, even if it doesn’t appear that way. That stopped me. Not something anyone else has said, even in different words.
I let the thoughts swim around in the back of my brain for a day. And came up with a few ideas:
When I work on pictures with specific focus on volume, whether it is an architectural image or a vista, I can feel the volumes reflecting back into me. They are rearranging my heart. I mean my physical heart as well as my emotional heart. I don’t plan this. It happens when I extract the picture in my head, wrangle it onto a surface, and then begin to paint it out. Not always but often. It’s as though the space in the paintings coalesces around you, making an impression of your body, simultaneously allowing you to be in the painting. Thus indicating a human form. And perhaps changing this form, this sensate state, this brain state; encouraging a cognitive wandering. At least this is what I hope is going on.
Green
2006 oil on linen 40 X 52
The Mermaid’s Feet
2010 oil on linen 68 X 70
Garden of Light
2009 oil on wood 36 X 48
House of Whim
2016 oil on wood 48 X 60
Waltz
2012 oil on linen 49 X 56
In contrast a straight on portrait places you at a distance so that you are contemplating the form but not usually being enfolded. I’m thinking more of a head/bust portrait:
Virgil & Djoal
2010 oil on wood 17 X 18
Portrait of Chip (SRD)
2010 oil on wood 13 X 16
Self
2008 oil on wood 12 X 16
When it’s a three-quarters to full body in an environment there is some give and take in the voodoo:
Moyer
2007 oil on wood 40 X 50
TITLE
2010 oil on wood 14 X 22
Sally
YYYY HH X WW medium
Once the picture is tipping over into the surroundings, overpowering the figure….you’ve got the embedded form being enfolded and what of us, the viewers?
…we’re back to crazy talk
easier to look and see:
Yellow Dream
2009 watercolor on paper 55 X 60
Sphinxland
2009 oil on metal blackboard 28 X 42
Under the Tartuffala Tree
YYYY HH X WW medium
OK, that’s was a bit of an unexpected hike. But internal wayfaring being one of my primary motivators, I hope you enjoyed the trip with me.
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