Still working on some new ideas. I'm also finding out how time consuming making paintings with masks is. But I'm really enjoying the results: pristine and clean edged shapes. So ready to be smudged and roughed up!
I'm currently working on a piece that is a continuation of the urban landscape done in my painting class a couple of weeks ago. The idea has changed into something more elemental: order vs chaos. The barbed wire fence has morphed into a grid that lies under the shapes instead of infront. The tagged letterforms have been manipulated on the computer and then projected onto the picture plane. At present they feel fragmented and displaced but that may be because they are just the initial block-ins. I'm trying to keep my "painterly" had out of the picture but it may need something to unify the forms. Maybe the grid will keep them together.
So several meanings start to arise when you have freeforms suppressed by a grid: personal inhibition, our own existential limitations (ie. we can't fly or teleport instantly to another part of the world), our personal boundaries or self-defining qualities, the could-haves should-haves etc. The list goes on. Even the idea that I'm experimenting with these non-painterly methods may feel like restriction compared to how I usually paint. The desire for a bohemian life vs. fiscal responsibility.
. . . perhaps I should narrow it down a bit lol
"A painting is done when you can't tell which colour is ontop of which."
-What Painting Is, James Elkins
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