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Documenting a period in my development that could become pivotal

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Diptych Modular, painting outside the box

I started thinking of how many possible arangements could be made from this diptych if I turned it four ways interchanging all squares plus leaving the back painting open. I think it must be a calculous mathematical problem and I do not have a quick exact answer. But it must be hundreds of thousands. Today I painted the inner layer of the white modualr and also some of the concave sides of the boxes. It now occurs to me that this could be a mini artist's body of works. A slot could be made in one side of each cradled box and more paintings could be inserted. I could invite people to participate in this modular. I could teach people to paint and arrange colors without them ever having to wet a brush. It would be real paint and not like the light in acomputer monitor.


I am thrilled with finding a special meaning. The femine spirit as I began this a week ago was looking through the window with wet eyes. It was hard to tell if she was on the inside or the outside. I do not want to paint exclusion. So here I paint my femine spirit becoming. I am painting outside of my box.




In 2003 I made this cut-out after Matisse's cut-out dragon in His "The Thousand and One Nights". This is a dragon trying to expand beyond his confinement. I was painting my mother's spirit in her last days in the nursing home. I showed her Matisse's cut-outs and made some similar ones to hang above her bed where she could see them. The Diptych Modular is partly finished and will have a similar feeling and symbolism.




3 comments:

Andrea and Kim said...

These are both really wonderful! I like the way you think and relate things together. The colors you use are so much fun and work perfectly in the sculptural qualities of your work!

Thank you so much for sharing.

Diane Widler Wenzel said...

I am really enjoying making these. It takes me back to my high school art classes under the instruction of Chicago Institute graduate Henry Heine. We did experimentation in our own direction and design. I tried fiber art construction with silks. This also reminds me of my college work at Portland State College under the instruction of Frederich Heidel also a graduate of the Chicago Art Institute. Both instructers appreciated the importance of intuitive judgement. From the outset of my training I learned from experimenting and making my own calls on color. We were warned about academic guidelines set by someone else. The first assignment was to divide up the painting surface and try placing colors one against another to see how the colors mixed as I am doing here in the modulars on multiple levels. Plus here I want to create an emotional symbolism with the colors and sculptural elements.

Martha Marshall said...

I really love the idea of the almost infinite possibilities with these boxes. Great fun!