“There’s something about black. You feel hidden away in it.” -Georgia O’Keeffe
Finally! I figured out how to finish this piece to the point that makes me happy. This panel has been through so many iterations, I have lost count. At one point there was electric blue on the left side. You can actually see remnants of that peeking through the earthy pink.
The very last step that I did last week sometime was pulling off a big piece of polk dotted fabric off. I loved that polk dotted fabric. But I think I loved it too much. For a long time, I knew it had to go, but I was reluctant. And so it stayed. I tried to make it work in order to keep it in, but no. It had to go so that I could move on with this painting. I know I will put it to use in another piece at some point. After that came off, it progressed quickly. I poured India Ink across the top of the panel and covered the whole surface. It’s funny how I was so precious about that polka dotted fabric and then once it was off, I literally obliteratad everything on the top half of the painting! Strange. I guess it’s like ripping a bandaid off. The painful part is done and then everything after that is fine.
I love having dark black sections in my paintings, as is obvious when I look at my work through the years, but it’s pretty clear this past year in particular. It’s hard to see through a computer screen, but often the black sections in my paintings have lots of different colors in them. I usually add them as glazes with pgiment sticks. Sometimes it’s in the layers beneath peeking through.
I think of black as warm and fertile and intimate. The burial of seeds into the ground. The dark womb that holds growing life. But then, I think of the expansive dark sky. Lying in the grass when I was young and staring up into the immense dark sky, whose darkness helped make the lights of far planets and stars shine brighter. The limitless expanse that led into the universe. Which then naturally leads one to think of the mystery that underlies everything.
In the black, I drew in dots and plus signs. I do that a lot in my paintings. They are often about the spirits or messages around us.
I fell in love with black; it contained all colors. It wasn’t a negation of color…Black is the most aristocratic color of all. You can be quiet, and it contains the whole thing. -Louise Nevelson
…”it contains the whole thing.” I love that.