Week 13: Day - Day - Painting Coasting on mystery

Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible. ​Paul Klee

In this post I am showing and writing about the daily paintings I created between 9/18 and 9/21/19. ​ I must look at the symbol, execution and intention. In general I believe that all of the visual information I take in as I live my life as well as the spiritual stirrings I experience, are funneled through my work. As I sit down to work I do not necessarily understand what is being transmitted on the page, what it symbolizes or why I am putting it out at that moment. And yet this is moving through me. As the explorations of the ring formations continued on this day, I shifted the lens and they suddenly become semi-circles or archways. The arches themselves offered new perspectives; they sit back, and move forward, twist and turn, they exhibit solidity and transparency at the same time. The color and the handling of the paint is as important to this picture as the arches. ​Certainly what beauty there is in this piece comes from the colors and their relationship to each other. On the day I made this, this is what wrote about the piece; "I did this piece in one day, in one sitting, actually. I started with colors left over from yesterday’s painting and incorporated the drawing of the half circles. I was thinking about the bricks that describe arches over windows and how that relates to the mysterious floating circles that have been showing up. Less refined than some pieces, more breathing room than others...here is the piece."

Art-making has an alchemical effect on the imagination. It awakens the senses and sharpens insights, teaching us to think in symbols, metaphors, and to de-code complexity, so we can perceive the world in new ways. ​ Linda Naiman

Here is a story, yesterday an artist friend came for a visit and looked through the daily paintings. When she got to the ones with the circular shapes, she was curious as to what they were? Rings? Lily pads? Many seem to be floating on the page. Then she said, "Well they are all closed circles, which is a symbol for completion. Maybe healing of your pelvis?" Her response rang a chord with me, and I think these images are about emotional and spiritual healing as well as physical.​

The day she visited I had already done my painting for the day and produced the painting above, the semi-circle, (the archways seen above and again below). Initially, I thought about the archway made of bricks over windows on some buildings. On this second day, I also thought of aqueducts, tunnels, passages. There is some depth indicated in the handling of the paint in some areas and then again the handling indicates a flat surface.​ ​I’ve posted an additional image below, of this same painting and included my feet as a size cue. ​

shown with feet to indicate size

The sound of the sea, the curve of a horizon, wind in leaves, the cry of a bird leave a manifold impression in us. And suddenly, without our wishing it at all, one of these memories spills from us and finds expression in musical language… I want to sing my interior landscape with the simple artlessness of a child. Claude Debussy

So yes, I am an antenna that transmits signals I have picked up. I have a daily practice in which I attune to the morning light and capture its effect, reflections or shadows, on something in my immediate environment. I then post these images to Instagram. In this piece, where I have returned to the full circular shape, I start to see how the #morninglight series is working it’s way into these paintings

The primary benefit of practising any art, whether well or badly, is that it enables one’s soul to grow. Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Color typically plays a large role in my paintings, in this piece I limited the hue and value to nearly monotone ...still exploring these shapes that seem to float in their own environment.

“Energy and motion made visible – memories arrested in space” ​Jackson Pollock

Certainly the colors and marks and images are imbued with a resonance for me because I have been the conduit for them. In the end, I think the meaning of the symbolism to me is less important than the personal associations raised in the viewer.