There is nothing that gives me more frustration or satisfaction than painting and that makes perfect sense - it is what I struggle for and achieve that is the most fulfilling. Right now I am in the flow. The flow is not constant which makes it all the more precious. This is the time when I am painting and completing paintings. I have one just started - a half dozen finished and ready to photograph, and one in about the mid-way stage. And I feel like I can still do more. The burners are all on. This is not always the case. I hit the wall sometimes and it is a very uncomfortable place to be. But as my chiropractor told me - we need to become empty to fill up again. Right now I am still filling and it feels really good.
Imagery re-visits me. Years can go by and then something from a past painting will appear again in my work.
The
egg is back. I was on an egg roll :) years ago when I was heavily into symbolism. I don't have any digital images of this work. If I can find a photo I will scan it later to give an example of what I was doing. At the time my work was idea oriented. I was not painting from reference but I had some semblance of a plan about what I wanted to convey. The content was first and the painting was second. That reversed itself when I began painting again in 2004. The egg came back spontaneously that year or the year after in this painting:
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| Lost in Place (Susan) acrylic on wood panel 24" by 24" 2004 or 2005 |
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Not the best photo of this piece - taken before I developed some skill at recording images of my work.
I remember being pretty pleased that the egg came back unbeckoned. It meant that I could concentrate on painting, pursue the formalities-and the content would eventually come. I was so thrilled with developing strength in color, composition, and texture, I was so happy just to be painting! Previously I had been in a creative drought on the heels of having worked as a painter for the
McMenamins for 3 years. You can see examples of my work for them at the prior link.
When things are rolling there is so much freedom in my work. When I start to feel stuck I remind myself that I make up the rules and I can use them or break them as I see fit. But I digress. I was talking about re-occurring imagery. Now this example is a bit different in that it is not images that repeated themselves later but it is two paintings done separately at least a year a part that read as one painting. I was alerted to the connection by the woman who had purchased one of them. Much later she looked at my website and saw the second painting and thought they would look good together. I printed the images out and sure enough they belonged together so she bought the second one. I have bugged her about sending me a photo of them hung side by side but she has never complied so here is a dodgy image of them from a print out of a very low res photo with then slightly better shots of them individually below but also low res.
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| Painting on the left "Far from Eden" painting on the right "I dream of Persia" |
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So the woman bought the painting on the right first and then at least a year later I did the second one on the left. It's interesting to me how the titles flow together unintended - miles and many months apart.
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| Far from Eden acrylic on wood panel 24" by 24" 2006 |
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| I Dream of Persia acrylic on wood panel 24" by 24" 2005 |
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Most recently it has happened twice with imagery links between paintings I did about two years ago and two I just finished. When it happens I give reference to it in the titles. Here is an example one pair :
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| Mechanisms of Belief acrylic on wood panel 24" by 48" 2010 |
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| Mechanisms of Belief Part 2 acrylic on wood panel 24" by 20" 2012 |
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The flow of imagery fascinates me. Sometimes I think about literally taking my own images directly and - that is actually referencing them to take them further. Make them larger - change the color scheme or something like that. I have only done it once - my only commission to date since 2004. It felt very different. It actually took me back to what it was like to paint for the McMenamins
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| Riding the Golden Calf 8" by 8" acrylic on wood panel 2010 |
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This tiny painting sold and a patron wanted a version of it much bigger. I saw where it was due to hang and altered the colors and expanded on the detail.
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| Riding the Golden Calf 2 acrylic on wood panel 48" by 40" 2010 |
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And now I must get back to the studio.
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