This is another painting from a few years ago. And again my dada-esque painting process mimics the spontaneous conjuring I apply in my sketchbooks...a totally random concept, and then slowly let the piece reveal itself in greater detail. After a bath of layered drips of black, I started positioning the torus/torso together (Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes Snowmen certainly had a subliminal influence over me).
I wanted to put a cliched valentine heart in the empty core... reminiscent of Oz's Tin Man. Satirical ice veining seemed absurd...yet somehow appropriate. An overabundance of carrots makes him seem more menacing...but also a bit obsessive. The multiple eyes are designed to give our snow-critter a spider-like presence. I made the arms waving a frantic warning...perhaps as an homage to the Lost in Space robot.
Speaking of the arms...I consciously constricted them from penetrating outside the picture plane...for several reasons. 1st, it forces the form to seem boxed in...constricted...it makes for a more claustrophobic sensation. I am naturally fearful of confinement, so this heightens my anxiety. And an even better reason is the "childlike" painting aptitude it resonates. Back in my college years I strove to mimic children's art. This was a point of salvation for me...it freed me from the yoke of self-imposed aesthetic constriction. I am still extremely interested in child art (as my kids will attest to, since I often ogle and then bastardize their work).Perhaps the painting's "coup de grâce" is the Easter hay. It seemed fitting to snuggle the snowman in his own nest of evocative plastic green grass. The bright color anchors the composition and vies with the magenta chapeau. Falling snow helps bring continuity to the overall piece
There you have it...my soliloquy on a by-gone piece. My next post will focus on pieces from my upcoming show at the Remedy (March 2013).
Cheers
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