Smudges

I've been doing these things for a year or two, I have several notebooks full. They started out as kind of an immediate gratification thing, when I didn't have time or energy to put into something more demanding. But they've gotten more involved, and I do them on purpose now, when I'm feeling particularly fired up about something.

I like the saturated colors, cause that's how I tend to feel things. But my most favorite thing about them is the blurred edges, the blendings, the meetings and gradiations of color. I like the ambiguous definitions of beginning, end, and boundary because they suggest to me wide open possibilities. These feel dynamic to me while I'm making them (as opposed to static) and very vibrant.

(This is an odd post, cause I almost never "explain" any work I do or post...why I'm compelled to do it at this moment is a mystery...)

I think the idea from these came from an exhibition of Mark Rothko paintings I saw a few years ago. I had seen them in books, but was in no way prepared for the visceral feeling of being in a space surrounded by them. I had a very physical reaction, as if my body was resonating to the panels. I remember being stunned by this, and not by beauty...its was more a sensation of the raw power emanating from the rich, saturated colors and enveloping me. My first experience of this kind, and I'll never forget it. I understand that while everyone's experience is personal and unique, having some kind of reaction to work like that is not terribly unusual, but almost always unexpected. I feel lucky to have had the experience and received the lesson.

Hope everyone has a good evening! Tomorrow's Friday kiddies! So let's get a jump and listen to a tune!