In addition to more traditional pieces like this oil painting of my girlfriend’s horses I just finished, I like to build systems into which energies are applied.
For this show I brought my 8 foot table with 144 bolts which can be adjusted up and down to deform the surface of the masonite boards I paint on.
Hanging large weights off the bottom of the “canvas” creates depressions which conduct the water and paint mixture into two “black holes” on the surface.
When pouring paintings with people, I answer questions, explaining my techniques and perspectives on what I think is happening in this style of painting
I call “illuvium” for the term which describes sediment spreading over alluvial flood planes.
Wetting a piece of felt, we create a general shape of
the painting before peeling it away.
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We survey the landscape, the almost imperceptible hills and valleys, then think of how how we will paint around the shore of our lake to meet each other.
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I reassure any accidents we make might be the most beautiful part.
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I give a quick example of how to pour.
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We go for it.
We meet, negotiate and overlap.
Beauty happens!
This painting I call “Fan,” was painted on a coat of Golden’s, black Micaceous Iron Oxide which sparkles in the light.
I have felt the pull from racing motorcycles to rock and roll, to a landscapes where I can make bigger moves.
Not only does my disability amplify the necessity to build with care and attention, I have become an observer, aware of weight and movement. I often feel like a dog in the kitchen watching the master open a can and I have a lot of insight into how it's done.
This Wave painting was poured on a table specially constructed to curve the flow of water. You can still see the hole in the canvas at the apex of the spiral. For the texture, I mixed a special Golden medium called GAC which lists as a precaution that it may cause foam if stirred aggressively. I use an egg beater to mix. The “paint” I use contains tiny mica flakes which give the painting an iridescent sheen. As the foam bubbles make their way along to the hole, they collect particles of mica which make tiny islands.
The wave is an iconic shape for a painting but I also find the wave or pulse is the most fundamental component of life. These peristaltic rhythms show themselves in the texture of dunes formed as energy moves.
While it is fantastic that this painting looks like a bird, it was not the intended outcome. The eye was a dry spot which formed during the pour and the white of the beak is where the flow slowed and pooled, dropping the sediment before draining.
I am most interested in how things happen. Unlike solids or gasses, a liquid is moving in a time closer to our own. In water we can see the same physics which are occurring throughout the universe. I design systems to show our physical inputs of energy meeting with natures.
The colluding forces are spectacular and when these paintings dry, they leaves us with a document of the actions.
Ambient Whale Metal
Rooster
Epoch
Along with twenty larger paintings, I brought my “Magic Beans,” paintings on sheets of steel to which I stick magnets of other colors for creating color effects.
in the end 2,500 people came out looking for art.
My girlfriend Stacy sits between India and Dane and Trey for the first time after a night of standing.
Thank you Honey. It was a high of my life doing that with you.
We spent two days setting up for the show with a borrowed van and the help of Dane, Jason Abbey and the Seattle Theater Group crew.
Thank you to Trey, Brian Layton, Steve Martin, Robert Margoshes, Steve McCallie, Gary, Julia, Jeff, and Judy.