The Calm and Chaos of Abstraction
Navigating through the process of painting.
Painting, unlike other endeavors has a limit to how much thought conception can be used to make a painting. It requires something else. No matter what the subject matter is, a painting asks the painter to be involved on a level where thought has no relevance and process dictates.
It can take awhile for a painter to understand this, much less develop it. Comprehension comes after completion.
No matter how many sketches I make the actual painting will always be something else entirely. And if things are working in the painting this something else transcends.
But the goal of the painter is not to transcend, although it might seem so at first glance. Who doesn’t want to have the effect of transcendence?
Yet, this need for impact is not about painting.
Instead, painting is about the painter understanding who they are and what they want from the process of making a painting. Once this is known to the painter, said painter can formulate elements that belong in their particular process of painting.
Again, this is not a thoughtful effort. Rather it is a down and dirty, get on the floor (in my case), mix lots and lots of paint and get to it.
My paintings need an element of chaos mixed with a good bit of order. I like pairing disparate things together and they don’t always have to be visible. I want there to be a subtle discovery happening; maybe the slight hint of what’s underneath peeking out or a particular texture can be discovered at a certain angle.
I begin freely, applying pigment to surface and engaging in the act of play. Not having any expectation at this stage is vital to turning off the thinking and starting up the intuitive collaboration between painter and painting. My hands begin to warm up as it takes on the role of intermediary.
This act of “play” goes on for awhile over several days as I alternate between looking and adding on to the painting.
In the looking, the painting communicates what it needs. So I spend a lot of time looking at it; listening for the visual cues.
I don’t particularly enjoy a chaotic environment. I tend to like a minimal, clean space. Yet my paintings need this infusion of freewheeling process making where surprises happen and new discoveries are made.
Through the continued process of painting I discovered how these two elements could work together. A language begins to develop; formulated through a process of non thinking.
Painting requires an act of faith. A belief in this process and that it will resolve itself. Painting also requires attachment and letting go. The attachment doesn’t happen at the end for the painter. This is what occurs during the process. It is the letting go, when it’s done, that the artist has to allow.
