The decisive moment in human evolution is perpetual. That is why the revolutionary spiritual movements that declare all former things worthless are in the right, for nothing has yet happened.
—Franz Kafka
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I have been working on some new work that is built on layers of painted textures in the under painting. They are often in their own way abstract pieces in themselves and I find myself contemplating the possibility of building more on these to create pure abstract paintings without any direction toward representation. I think there will be at least several attempts in the future to at least explore the possibility, trying to see if I can satisfy my own needs within the realm of abstraction. But for the moment, the abstract elements support, and hopefully enhance, my own imagery.
Much like my normal gessoed surfaces, these painted underlying elements are meant to create a visual thumbprint, a distinct and individual surface that has a life force of its own and adds a measure of depth to the whole of the painting. Some of the painted textures have been chaotic with multiple shapes and colors throughout. Others use similar forms and colors set in a loosely patterned manner. Whether they are random or built in a pattern, they must have some natural flow and depth within.
This new piece above is an 18″ by 18″ canvas that I call Perpetua. It is built on a base of what I would call painted rectangular plates that seem to be descending into the background. For me, it takes a simple image comprised of only a couple of elements and gives it added levels of depth and meaning.
When I look at this, that background has me considering things beyond the central figure of the Red Tree and its place in the moment. It becomes a mere marker in a larger continuum, perhaps at the vanguard in its own present time but soon to be surpassed by the progress of the coming future. Perhaps those plates represent images of past times and those things that were the cutting edges of those times, hovering in the background and supporting a new ascension.
Maybe. Who knows? I painted it and much of it remains a mystery to me.
And maybe that is the whole point…
Redtree Times 