bruce, unfortunately my friend who was making almost weekly business trips to philly, and invited me to tag along for the ride, lost his philly business only a few weeks after making the ride offer. argh!
I will save final judgement until I see the painting live, but here are a few comments. I really like the texture you created across the entire canvas. Did you use papier mache or paper pulp to do that? The two long gashes, wounds, slashes in the canvas are very effective. The disruption and puncturing of the pictorial space is visceral and compliments and contradicts a painted two dimensional surface's power to suggest three dimensional space. The sky blue field and the crisp red circle generate an interesting dynamic.
the texture actually comes from paint scraped off of the back of a house... i picked up some of the scraps. probably not a good idea. added them to the already painted canvas... and then painted all over it again.
the slits are bent and kind of solid... because earlier i had a sock tied all around and through them.
you can't see the sides in this image but i like them because there is a lot of orange on the edges, from previous layers.
- i used to use acousti-tex in some of my bigger paintings (2003-2005)... acousti-tex is that stuff that makes ceiling texture.
I am all for mixing shit in with the paint. I've used sand, fine metal shavings that I took from the gas station I worked at in Baldwin, Long Island for a few years as a gas attendant (pumping gas and cleaning windshields), and melted candle wax and crayons.
When the mechanics would fix a disc brake system they shaved the metal discs. One day while I was waiting for customers and wandering around the cavernous garage I came upon this metal barrel filled with these shavings. I immediately thought, "Cool I can mix this stuff with paint!" I used to sit in a bridge chair in the front of the gas station and read until a customer drove up. I was reading a lot of Betrand Russell back then.
The owner of the gas station listened to Rush Limbagh every day and would laugh out loud while doing so. I often fetched breakfast for the mechanics and I remember one of them telling me one day, "Don't let them Jew you on the cream cheese" when he was ordering his bagel. I used to work at the bagel place he was refering to and it was owned by a grumpy obese Italian guy. The mechanic probably knew that I was Jewish but he didn't care. I was more amused than anything else.
I don't know about you but I love the colors found on old tin roofs that have been painted over and over again through the years. There are a few of them near where I live and I have been meaning to take pictures of them.
The orange sides of your painting sound great. I am sure they would add to the experience of looking at the front side of the painting. Hopefully I will see your stuff live one day.
I find it strangely satisfying when I cut a whole in a painting. When are you coming to Philly, we just installed two air conditioners.
ReplyDeletebruce, unfortunately my friend who was making almost weekly business trips to philly, and invited me to tag along for the ride, lost his philly business only a few weeks after making the ride offer. argh!
ReplyDeleteThere's a hole in this painting? The dark spot in the lower right?
ReplyDeletethere are three holes. yes, that dark spot is one of them.
ReplyDeletei'm having a lot of thoughts from this one...
Oh, weird. Now I see them. Before I saw the other two as projecting out. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteGeez. It's so obvious now.
ReplyDeleteI will save final judgement until I see the painting live, but here are a few comments. I really like the texture you created across the entire canvas. Did you use papier mache or paper pulp to do that? The two long gashes, wounds, slashes in the canvas are very effective. The disruption and puncturing of the pictorial space is visceral and compliments and contradicts a painted two dimensional surface's power to suggest three dimensional space. The sky blue field and the crisp red circle generate an interesting dynamic.
ReplyDeletethe texture actually comes from paint scraped off of the back of a house... i picked up some of the scraps. probably not a good idea. added them to the already painted canvas... and then painted all over it again.
ReplyDeletethe slits are bent and kind of solid... because earlier i had a sock tied all around and through them.
you can't see the sides in this image but i like them because there is a lot of orange on the edges, from previous layers.
- i used to use acousti-tex in some of my bigger paintings (2003-2005)... acousti-tex is that stuff that makes ceiling texture.
I am all for mixing shit in with the paint. I've used sand, fine metal shavings that I took from the gas station I worked at in Baldwin, Long Island for a few years as a gas attendant (pumping gas and cleaning windshields), and melted candle wax and crayons.
ReplyDeleteWhen the mechanics would fix a disc brake system they shaved the metal discs. One day while I was waiting for customers and wandering around the cavernous garage I came upon this metal barrel filled with these shavings. I immediately thought, "Cool I can mix this stuff with paint!" I used to sit in a bridge chair in the front of the gas station and read until a customer drove up. I was reading a lot of Betrand Russell back then.
The owner of the gas station listened to Rush Limbagh every day and would laugh out loud while doing so. I often fetched breakfast for the mechanics and I remember one of them telling me one day, "Don't let them Jew you on the cream cheese" when he was ordering his bagel. I used to work at the bagel place he was refering to and it was owned by a grumpy obese Italian guy. The mechanic probably knew that I was Jewish but he didn't care. I was more amused than anything else.
I don't know about you but I love the colors found on old tin roofs that have been painted over and over again through the years. There are a few of them near where I live and I have been meaning to take pictures of them.
The orange sides of your painting sound great. I am sure they would add to the experience of looking at the front side of the painting. Hopefully I will see your stuff live one day.
Cool Diagram