Monday, October 10, 2011

My Feathered Nest




Feathery-Ness

Exploring the dynamics of what it mean to be feathery is my artistic goal. Over the past few months I have worked with shapes and sizes of feathers and feelings of featheriness. I leave various attempts around and find that further action on them comes at the most unexpected moments. Here, briefly, are some of the things so far including a chair I painted for downtown Newmarket (my "feathered nest") and collage like items. I am working away from feather shapes and concentrating on color and feeling, my own version of abstract expressionism.

I recently completed the biography of Joan Mitchell, color painter extraordinaire and definitely difficult human being. She had that condition where senses smudge over onto one another ("synesthesia"?) so, e.g., in her mind, each letter in the alphabet had its own color. Needless to say, this appears to have had quite an impact on her work (also, her lifelong need to make her father love her; not successful that way). Her paintings are large and full of extraordinary color. I have found a book of her paintings and am now tracking down where they are located so I can see them for real.