Found Imagery

I love found imagery. I was very upset when my son told me what happened to his apple macbook pro. It was completely crushed. He opened it to show me the screen and of course I had to pull out my iPhone and snap a picture of it. It was a fantastic found image. I like the composition and love the texture in the black areas. The remnants of brown in the white areas give even more texture. Reminds me of prints, specifically a print I made called “Six Steps In”. Fantastic. I want to make a painting from it. These images shout out at me and I need to make art with them somehow. I collect them. Sometimes it’s just a portion of the found image that inspires me, or it’s the texture (often it’s the texture) and the shapes. This particular image speaks to my new series of paintings that are layer map-like forms. This has a very map like quality to it. All good, except we had to get my son a new laptop and believe me, we paid for a really good warranty.

Less is more

Cropped painting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Capturing the crux of something is at times achieved by reducing things to their essence. Boil it down, edit. I find these days we are so verbose. That’s why twitter allows only 140 characters, and I’ve heard of others that are even less. Often, as I am working on a painting I find I want to immediately start another, one that is just a portion of the prior. This distillation process is good, it reminds me to edit my compositions, to zero in on the focal point of the painting and eliminate the unnecessary parts. Good writing is well edited. Good design is simple. I think the most elegant and sophisticated are the understated. So, while this crop is okay, it needs to shift a lot in terms of color.  I will experiment with the canvases by continuing to reduce my elements as well as my color choices. And, I will think about what I am saying before I say it. Perhaps a few words less would allow for listening instead of talking. . .