From Studio Notes, March 2006

◄  #1, March 2006. 
March 2, 2006. Montreal
Night.
Begin #1, March 2006
What I heard before I began:
Art is the senses calling to live beyond the grave.

First, write that large with a Chinese brush on the surface of the paper.

Second, cover the writing with a large diamond form of mixed red heavy impasto pigments.

Third, engrave into the large red diamond a small geometric net diamond form with a tiny golden diamond in its center.

March 3, 2006. Montreal.
Night.
Continue work on #1, March 2006.
Art is the senses of the deceased calling from the grave—and it is through the calling of their senses embodied in their work we enter the calling of their souls.

First, paint the engraved geometric net diamond with carbon black, painting the tiny gold diamond back into the wet black pigment, darkening the gold with shadow.

Second, cover the red diamond with earth raw umber, let the form grow of its own will.

Third, see the need for a yellow ochre bar lifting above the image… and the need to hold it with a black spray center… and the need to cut into that black whatever comes… a sperm, a spiral…

Fourth and into the open void in what remains of the red, a stroke of “spiritual” cad red medium

And then cut the three lines of life from the yellow ochre bar at the top down to the black diamond at the bottom.

March 4, 2006. Montreal.
Night.
About #1, March 2006… take a look. The only way to develop this painting further would be to destroy it to make something else. Whatever you ever may want, you get only what you get and this time this is it.

March 8, 2006. Montreal.
Night.
“And what the hell does this painting have to do with the texts from which it came? Damned if I know.” Except that the semi-spiral in the dark in the yellow ochre bar might be the Siren calling from the grave.

Return to March 2006 Paintings