Friday, September 5, 2014

First Day of School


Crowning Glory
monoprint over pastel


That feeling when everything is new, when possibilities abound, when time is on your side, like on the first day of school - that was the feeling when I finally got into my studio.

Stealing a moment from other projects, and stepping into a room filled with blinding light, without an idea in my head yet again, I simply began.  Choosing an unquestionably unfinished monoprint from the pile, I pinned it on the wall, and started drawing into it.  

Whomever was my inspiration that day, I cannot remember, except that I was to look at a great deal of Richard Diebenkorn, Zoem Walter, and Rita and of course, always Helen Frankenthaler, not that any of them would have had anything to do with this image.  The Scottish artist Joan Eardley (1921 - 1963) was a new discovery who provided many "ah-ha" moments.  Perhaps it was a brief visit with the works of J.M.W. Turner that began the first day and what was to come.  That would make sense.

Otherwise, where this came from, I do not know. I just drew into the monoprint, taking my clues and cues from what was happening in front of my very eyes - nothing else.  

After Crowing Glory was finished, it was a few weeks before I got back into the studio to work again, but I visited it often, sneaking in before I went to bed at night, gazing at this single piece, so I could dream about "what next?"

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