This painting called Dissolve is another in the series I’ve been working in for the past few months. This 24″ by 36″ piece is based very much on the same format as Like Sugar In Water, which I displayed here several days back. Both paintings grow from the bottom where they begin in structured blocks of color. The path cuts through, rising from the geometry of the fields up to a plain that flattens out. The path continues by the red-roofed house and is not seen again as it enters the broad yellow field that runs to the horizon. The path’s upward movement is continued in the spreading bare limbs of the distant tree which merges into the broken mosaic of the sky.
It’s a simple concept and a simple composition, dependent on the complexity of the color and the placement of the elements in order to transmit feeling and emotion. These simpler compositions, when done so that they work well, are often very potent purveyors of feeling and are among my persoanl favorites. The stripped down nature of the scene takes away all distractions and centers the essence of the work in the willing viewer’s eyes, making it very accessible to those who connect with it. And that is much of what I hope for my work- to create work that stirs strong emotion within a seeming;ly simple context.
Maybe there’s more to it than this. I can’t be sure if my thoughts and interpretations are any more valid than those of a first-time viewer. That’s the great thing about art– there are no absolutes. It’s also the thing about art that scares a lot of people. Many people fear the gray areas of this world, of which there are many, and desire absolute belief and knowledge in all aspects of their lives. But art most often lives in the ambiguity, the uncertainty, of those gray areas and that can be unsettling to some.
Dissolve seems absolute and certain at first glance but is all about the gray areas of our world and our belief. At least as I see it…
Redtree Times 