Creative Process
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Where does an image or idea begin? Everything begins with a process of thinking about objects, colors, textures and shapes. I use the discarded palettes of past paintings, cut them up, let them sit for a time to age gracefully, and then assemble them in collages. This is how the paintings have happened over the last twenty years. Once the collage is finished, how do you apply the paint? The process is one of blocking off sections to be painted, giving a base coat of white acrylic paint so that the edges are clean and the colors do not bleed under the tape, and then I try to paint as faithfully as possible the colors and expressions that I find in the collages. Another technique is to take previous paintings to Fed Ex Kinkos and have them copy the works in sheets of color which are then cut up and assembled as new images. These are used as the compositions for new ideas. Also when the paint goes on the surface, I spit on it when it is still wet and then lift off some of the color. The process of painting is subtractive as much as it is additive. The spitting on the surface allows the under-colors to come through the finished surface. It gives the work an aging appearance which is not possible with just additive methods of traditional painting. Are drawings done in the same manner? The process of drawing is different. It is a process of locking edges and making non-traditional judgments on what happens next. This process of decision-making makes objects in three dimensions flatter and interlocking. Seeing is a process of continual decision making. I do not start with the overall image but begin with some shadow in a valley. The mind jumps to the next valley, tying all these together as a total vision but not starting with that framework. It is the opposite of the way that most artists saw the world through the early 20th century. It is not a process of passion but of intellect and vision. Why is the collage-thinking process used? It is used for two reasons: 1) the pleasure of seeing something for the first time (it is not possible to plan out where the work will lead so when something wonderful happens it is like opening presents on a special holiday) and 2) the collage process allows the viewer to see the world from a macrocosmic or microcosmic perspective. It is a process that is appropriate for me in the 21st century. Has this process of seeing the world from afar or close up been a part of the way that you see the world from your earliest remembrances? As I look back to my earliest works in grade or high school, the process has always had an element of seeing the world from an upstairs window or a sky view. This was mixed then with a classical or traditional point of view (since I had to learn my craft and explore all the artists that I saw at the art museum each week and in my classes at Carnegie Museum and Carnegie Mellon University. I started attending museums at the age of six). This process was reinforced when I had to see the world from my bed (bed-ridden from age 9-11 with rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart, walking up each step in our three story house and counting to ten before attempting the next step). Those individual steps, the ceiling and out the window at that time were my world. Why is color and texture and form so important to the recent works? Color is important for passion, texture for an aging process in the works and form because of how I see the 21st century. It is a form-oriented time in my life. |
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