Day Three

18"x24", acrylic & permanent marker on toned paper


detail view

This piece developed very organically. I looked at a bright pink silicone jar opener I was given around Christmas and thought about the color for a while. I opened a tablet of gray scale paper and pulled out the lightest gray, then I found myself mixing quinacridone red with white to make opaque pinks. I was fascinated with the way the gray shifted to a muted green next to the pink, and I applied several layers in circular shapes, which began to take on a pattern.

Often when I am feeling anxious, I draw hundreds of tiny circles in my sketchbook. They vary in size and begin to form larger shapes, usually resembling molecules. In this painting, I used that method in reverse: creating and outlining small circles on the surface of these pink orbs with a black Sharpie. True to the process, it became a compulsion to finish them all, and I actually completed this work in the wee hours of this morning, having started it rather late last night.

It was very satisfying to see an idea through to its end, even if the finished piece is perhaps too austere or self-evident. Ordinarily, I would probably do a few circles, think to myself "Yeah, I get the idea," and then abandon it. As I worked through the set-up, I found the circles and the way I drew them changing, and the piece took on dimensions I hadn't planned for - the kind of thing you can only really learn by doing it and experiencing it. It feels very good to learn.

This piece was extraordinarily difficult to photograph. The acrylic has a lovely shiny texture, which the Sharpie also takes on, and they develop this strange figure-ground relationship akin to glossy stickers affixed to the textured paper's surface. Flash obliterated the details, and I was admittedly too lazy to set up a proper lighting situation to capture the effect the way it appears in person. Perhaps this project will help me get over my loathsome relationship with photographing my work.