The Crushing Delicate

Inspired by a single, simple thought, yet presented in an abstract, obtuse manner. While you are thinking about what that means, I'll confess that I have been writing a lot of grants these days, those are the things scientists have to write to beg for what little $ the government (especially this one) has set aside for research. A grant is a little like an abstract painting in that sense, simple, yet obtuse...? The difference is that a grant is intended for money, and art is, well, ok, intended for money. Fortunately I've been able to pursue art without pressure for profits, probably how I was able to develop this off-the wall style of doodleism, a kind of surrealism-cubist hybrid style.

I want to talk about taking chances, with your art... in this painting I was convinced that I wanted the background to be a calm, blue sky with fluffy white clouds, but then I decided halfway through to go for a blazing orange sunset.... it looked awful, and I tried to cover it with this dark brown, meanwhile putting in the tangled octopus-like tendrils in the foreground... and it looked even worse. It was a mess... so I pulled out my hogs-hair... a big, thick round brush good for removing rust off a pipe... and proceeded to scrub the entire area... to my amazement it worked... the area I am talking about is the top right area just above the horizon, it ended up looking like a kind of misty twilight. The moral of the story is sometimes you just go for it and make damage control as you go.

The painting is about something very powerful that is never-the-less delicate. The theme reminds me of 'The Juggler', an old painting I did of a clown with a porcelain head juggling hammers (or was it 'The juggling act'?) I struggled with the name of this one, it was either going to be "Crushing Delicate" or "The Crushing Delicate", I decided midway that if it was spectacular enough then I would go with latter. In a lot of ways this painting is a turning point, it's a great combination of the variations of doodleism developed in the last few years, and it balances careful execution with wild- nearly uncontained technique.

22x30" cold press  2012