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Two topics have taken up residence in my thoughts lately. Writing about them helps to gain a better understanding of why I make what I make but it’ll take a lifetime or longer to fully soak in. 1) Mortality & Landscapes I’m a human so I like to seek things of a permanent nature. Why? Because there is no death in permanent things and most humans (myself included) don’t usually take joy in facing mortality. The irony of course, is that permanence doesn’t exist but there is one thing that provides me with a sense of comfort and that’s the wide-open landscapes of the Southwest US. No matter what’s going on in this crazy world, I can bet that the Sonoran Desert will be hanging out on the bottom half of North America just existing like it has for the last 20 million years and that’s the closest thing to “never-ending” that I’ve experienced. 2) Hidden Layers In undergrad, I overheard a conversation between a painting professor and a grad student that has stuck with me. Elaborate painted layers were apparently an important part of the grad student’s work. His finished paintings showed no trace of the first layers that were applied and the professor was questioning if making those early marks was worth the effort and energy. I’ve thought a lot about the beginning marks of a painting over the years and my stance has changed. Currently, my experience is that those first loose brush strokes are so important. They serve as the armature for the work, laying the path for all other marks. It’s a time to work things out but not the place for indecisiveness or doubt which works out great because at that point of the process you have nothing to lose. I like keeping part of that history visible but even if it doesn’t show, I know it was responsible for the direction that led to the end result.
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