"A portrait is not an identificative paper but rather the curve of an emotion" -James Joyce

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Simply Working

For over a decade I have been working in pairs, sometimes it's more intentional than others.  I like to work the problems of one out in the other.  It is not that the first doesn't look right, but it's usually a different feel.  A traditional diptych is one picture separated into two planes, but I have always thought of mine as two movements that combined make a song.  Both usually work on their own, but I would never switch which is on the left or right.  In a way they have a visual dialogue similar to the one we experience when going through photographs.  My studio end wall is just a bit over ten feet wide, and usually I have just enough room to fit two paintings on it.  This just became a pattern over time.  These two are just about 4 x 5 feet each.  I look at them in tandem, I like to move across them from left to right with my eye, and when I can I like to sell them together.  At this point of the process I start to move pretty fast, and a lot of the thinking has been done.  I don't like to think a lot while painting.  I paint to escape from art at this juncture.  A lot of the foundational drawing is now set, although they are a bit crisp for my liking.  I look forward to destroying the images in certain spots.  I also want to be very careful not to get too seduced by color.  I like to have a good reason for doing anything at all to them from this point on.

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