Witness

witness
Witness
encaustic mixed media
20×16 inches

Finished a painting this week that is part of my flooded images series, using photos and journal images that were damaged last year. When I had first started this painting, I was originally going to use put one of my trees in….but then this image called out to me. I thought, I don’t do figurative art in my body of work, I probably shouldn’t….but the pull was strong. And I listened to my gut, not my head. Witness. The figure in the photo is actually of one my best friends from childhood. In my 20s I went to visit her in NYC and we spent the whole trip gallery hopping, shopping and eating. I mean, NYC, right? And of course me making her pose in front of urban grunge here and there. I’ve always loved the photo and was so sad when I saw that it had fallen victim to the flood. But I had to admit that the ghostly image left over was so beautiful and powerful in its own way. While I was working on this painting, I kept looking up to this painting that I had painted a few months ago and had hanging on the wall near my workspace:

and-then-it-was-all-gone
And Then It Was All Gone
encaustic mixed media
20×16

I envisioned the two hanging together and so I worked off of it. Now I am pondering adding one of my flooded images to this painting, although I feel good about it as is. I’m just going to let them hang together for a while on my studio and not touch it. Unless one day, I just cave to the curiosity of what would happen if I did. What if?

Untitled

Please excuse the crookedness! I am sure anyone viewing this just wants to tip it in the right direction.

Looking at this now in my post, I think I’m going to leave it be and just make a third one. hmmmm.

Creativity is allowing oneself to make mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to keep. -Scott Adams

7 Comments

  1. I really love how you have taken this experience of the flood — and some very real objects — and explored and processed them all through art. These pieces are sensational and very compelling. And of course you had me at NYC. I think a third piece to balance these two is an inspired idea.

    1. Thank you Seth. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without art to process life in general! I had so much fun that visit, eating hot dogs and cupcakes on nearby stoops, buying a tamal from a man who came into the bar we were at late at night, running from gallery to gallery, a fun adventure with a childhood friend.

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