Clearly, I’m not a trained painter, but I’ve always found a simple thrill in the interplay of wet color on hands as they knead and push into canvas or plywood. I try and get to that space as often as I can, moreso in the last few weeks as I find a calmness in the application of paint on surface. I like where I go – in – when I paint. Flow state. Or, in keeping with the themes of my current research, a metaphorical calm or silence.
In reading Robin Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass”, I’ve found another dimension to enjoy – the notions of intentionality, of reusing, of gratitude for the gifts of the earth (strawberries in particular.) Along those lines, it feels good and right to reuse old surfaces. To use all those long neglected paints in all those closed cupboards before the world collapses into a car and I drive 3k miles Northwest(ish) to Vancouver. These lines from Kimmerer in particular keep ringing out, “if all the world is a commodity, how poor we grow. when all the world is a gift in motion, how wealthy we become.” Hope that hits you in all the ways it can
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turn off your lights when you leave the room
don’t let the water run when whitening those teeth
kiss the earth with each step
breathe in the pain and suffering of those around you
breathe out and send back all your hope and love
In documenting the process, I found a similar calm – the kind which comes when the world is seen through a viewfinder. It collapses just as our focus and attention do. From that angle, the below images are not only studies in texture and minimalism, but artifacts from this state of being.
Pictures of paintings in progress as much as they are of promise and a becoming.
Strawberries & their enduring gift.
