Blog

When baseball players are up to bat, they strive to hit the ball with the "sweet spot" of the bat.  If the ball connects at that particular spot as the bat is swung, the odds increase that the ball will travel higher and farther.  But finding the sweet spot, knowing exactly how to manipulate the bat, well, that takes practice.

I'm in the middle of finding the sweet spot with my mixed media pours.  I've watched an untold number of videos, read articles, and experimented with countless attempts.  I've worked with different recipes of paint/fixative/water/additives/whatever else came to mind.  It looks like it would be easy...just pour some paint on a surface and move it around....well, rude awakening here, it isn't so easy.  There are variables in density of paint that influence how it reacts to other paint, transparency existing where you don't expect it, and combinations of color that sometimes surprise you in how AWFUL they can be! Did I mention the incredible MESS of excess paint?  I filled the studio with work. Some were pretty successful, meaning they met my expectations.  Some were dismal failures.  Some were just so so.  And there were a few that I looked at and knew I got it right.  I felt it was coming together.  

But I know that there is more to come.  I'm beginning to manipulate the paintings "post completion".  I'm playing with using acrylic skins and gold leaf on the reverse of glass sheets.  I'm thinking outside the box more and more.  Color selection is more of a focus, rather than technique.  The works I am finishing are moving toward marketing.  The first have arrived at the gallery in town.  Now the marketing, the reaching out to expose the work to the public phase begins.  

I launched into this expression in art for a number of reasons, being fascinated by the chemistry, the uncontrolled nature of the materials, the challenge of learning something new.  There have been a lot of lessons learned, and a huge departure from my usual impressionist realism.  Focusing on the new medium, I left brushwork and traditional approaches behind.  Then something happened.

One night, I picked up a brush, sat down at the easel, and began to work.  After weeks of pouring paint, I was using my familiar brushes to create.  A transformation had taken place.  I was painting with loose brushstrokes.  My choices of color were more studied and confident.  The experimental work was feeding the traditional work.  There was excitement in both expressions.  Ideas began to come fast and furious. My notebooks began to fill with possibilities for future exploration.  

The future of my art remains somewhere out there.  I love creating, and this exercise in studying something very foreign to my experience has helped me grow in skill and excitement.  I'm having fun.  I'm joyful in my work.  Life is good!