This work is a very rare piece from my studio. Rare in terms of its emphasis of the non-objective color field (I've only made two of these works; this one in my collection and the other in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Kray), and rare in terms of its final state.
This final state rarity is the source of my rambling today.
As I fumbled forward creating drawings and paintings like this one out of the sheer exploration of materials or a sensation, I would come to points of understanding and completion in the creative process. Most of the time after considering the completeness I found in the work, I pressed forward hoping to find an even more exciting solution by playing with the materials some more. By pressing forward, I new I was challenging what I had gained in the drawing, but going for something more exciting is what the exploration is about. I would gain more potential some of the time, but most of the time I destroyed the potential. Happening even far fewer times during these creative runs, I would tuck the work away when I reached one of those moments of completeness, and return to it weeks, sometimes months, and ever so rarely, even years later bring a new energy to it.
This work is one that I tucked away. I remember building the potential in this drawing over a week layering pastels and light washes of acrylic paint onto the Rives BFK paper. On top of the pastel and paint, I sprayed the entire surface with cheap white spray paint muting and mixing the colors. Another bonus of this is that the pastel would soak up the spray paint creating a sand grain surface that would hold more pastel and acrylic over the previous layers creating a richer color combination and depth. After repeating these steps a number of times, I tucked this drawing away feeling content with the green-cloud field on the paper, but not fully satisfied how to bring other organic elements to it without these elements looking drawn and constructed.
For over eight years, this work traveled with me in a bundle of drawings that I would occasionally unroll to contemplate, and eventually re-roll and place back in storage. In my latest unrolling of these works though, I was surprised to find that these drawings had changed -- and not my by own hand!
My latest storage has been a garage with cement floors that were the lowest point on the landscape, and all the rain runoff from the nearby roofs and lawn would pool on the garage floor. My large drawings stood rolled up on end like columns on the garage floor and, needless to say, when the rain came these paper columns sucked up some of that rain water giving this drawing some unique stains that have brought new and very satisfying dynamics to this work.
Thanks Marcel Duchamp.
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