Change as an instigator
The rewards of repurposing artwork...
A tale in reverse…
This new painting was born both of necessity and creative risk-taking (isn’t this the case with all art?) The necessity came with needing a surface to make a large version of a Soft Poem piece and having to repurpose an older painting surface. The creative risk-taking aspect had everything to do with whether, and how, to use some of the imagery of the older painting.
I’ve wanted to expand the scale of my Soft Poem series, but thought I would take more time with the idea. This is mainly because I’ve been wedded to the idea of Soft Poems remaining in a realm adjacent to intimate, book-sized works that resembled poetry of a sort.
Someone made the suggestion of making larger SPs earlier this year, but I pushed that idea aside as it didn’t seem right for this project at the time. I was asked again and kicked the ball down the road some more. Until very recently, I simply wasn’t ready to expand this idea past the intimate scale (12 x 9 inches) it has inhabited. I guess the third time was the charm. The original series now numbers sixteen and I’m planning on continuing with them, but there’s no real reason not to stretch out and see what can happen on another path.
The main obstacle I saw with this was trying to understand how the idea behind the smaller Soft Poems would translate to a larger surface area. Part of my issue had to do with having limited supplies of certain materials needed to make this work. Money has been tight recently, so I’ve had to forgo certain supplies for a while until sales pick up again. However, I had to make sure that I push through the mental blocks I had about “not having enough” of this or that.
We work with what we have.
I did and things went way better than I thought they would. Even with a smaller amount of acrylic gel, I was still able to achieve the effect I wanted.
In the photos at the top, that there is a horizontal section of repeated, layered leaf-like stencil shapes near the bottom of the image. That part was psychologically hard to deal with because it belonged to the original painting this one covers most of. The original painting was called Visible Second Coming (2014), above right. The multi-layered stencil in white made me think about light and how it scatters and seem to cluster in places when shining through the leaves of a tree, perhaps.
[Sidebar: The title, Visible Second Coming, came from a song on a cd by an early 90’s industrial band called Will that I listened to for part of the making that painting. Will was a side project of Rhys Fulber, one of the original members of my favorite industrial bands, Front Line Assembly]
I chose to repurpose this painting because I felt that it was one of the lesser pieces from that period, even though I still liked that stenciled area. Once I got working on the new painting, I thought leaving part of the old work showing might work well here and I feel like it was a good choice. It’s tricky trying to choose how to engage with previous imagery like this. Most often, there’s no connection between new and old ideas necessitating a clean slate.
From that to this
A side-by-side view. I like the hint of history coming through in the reworking, adding to and not overwhelming the new painting.
Listening
A couple of art-related podcasts I heard earlier this week that you might like:
Charline von Heyl is a favorite contemporary painter whose works I really liked after seeing them in a show at Philadelphia’s ICA some years back. This discussion was pretty revealing in terms of the playful experimentation that’s a part of her mindset and practice.
I’m somewhat new to Diedrick Brackens’s textile-based work, only having seen some posts of it on Instagram, but I learned quite a few insights into his practice in this thoughtful conversation with Heidi Zukerman on About Art
Before the work starts…
Some mornings, I come in and turn lights on immediately and others, like today, I’ll leave them off for a bit to help me get centered before diving into the day’s work. I’m so grateful for being able to do this.
Thanks for being here.
I was wondering how the SP would work large. It is interesting to hear your process. Using the old painting made me think of blackout or erasure poems.
"We work with what we have."
Tim I'm with you on that. I've had moments that I get panicky because I don't have what I believe I need. As if I need anything else right now lol. But I have to remind myself, and look through my art supplies, that I have just enough and my paintings turn out much better than I expected.
Besides, paint supplies aren't cheap these days so we gotta make it work.
Great work as always! 🖤