This is the painting, a 24″ by 48″ canvas, that spawned the title of my show, Native Voice, that opens this Friday at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria.
I’ve been struggling to describe what I mean by the term native voice. I think we all have a native voice, a quality that reflects the true self that comes out of us naturally, unguarded and without thought. It is in the way we speak with family and friends, in the rhythm and manner of our words. It is in our local accent and vernacular.
It reflects the people and places and events that shaped us, all blending together in one unique package that bears our unique fingerprint and signature. We might be able to mask these things temporarily but our native voice is always near the surface, ready to emerge.
Applying this to painting, I see this native voice as being the way an artist naturally fashions a painting, in how they perceive the world and describe it to others through their work. It is that state of being when pretense is put aside, conscious thought diminished, and the process becomes intuitive and reactive, each reaction coming naturally. I would describe it in the way a child might paint when left to their own devices– pure and expressive.
I think this show bears this title well. I know that it feels natural and true to myself. I tried to not focus on concepts or themes as I painted, just let the work fall out as it would. As a result, when I delivered the show this past Saturday, I had a hard time describing much of it to the folks at the gallery. How do you describe something that is just a part of you, something that just is?
Now I doubt that this comes anywhere close to expressing what I see in that term Native Voice. But like talking to friends or family, if you are attuned to what I do with my work you’ll probably understand my native voice. If not, you’ll most likely think I’m that strange guy walking down the street muttering to himself.
And that’s okay, too.
Redtree Times 