a pfarrell artblog joint

Friday, September 6, 2013

margins



Almost a year ago, I was in the hospital recovering from a ruptured cerebral aneurysm. When I was lucid enough to reflect on anything specific, I often thought about getting back to the studio. In my morphine-fueled fever dreams, my studio appeared spacious, filled with beautiful light, clean, tidy, organized, sparsely furnished, with wide expanses of white walls on which to work. At some point, it dawned on me that I had left brushes soaking, and I asked my civilian (non-artist) husband to clean them for me. That was my only point of reference to the real reality of the condition my studio. 

Once I was home and managed to go out to the studio, I was dismayed to find not the spacious, airy space of my fever dreams. but a smallish, darkish space with stuff all over the place, like someone had just spent a lot of time in there painting and left in the middle of a painting session--brushes were clean, though. I did not yet have the energy to face such a mess. I was going to have to spend a bit of time considering what was ahead of me.



Me, on the porch of the studio pondering avoiding the mess inside.



Eventually, I felt stronger, changes in medication brought fewer side effects, and my restlessness drove me back into the studio. I spent the next few months picking up where I had left off, sort of.



selvedge no.1 
9 x 12 
acrylic on panel 
2012



selvedge no. 2 
9 x 12 
acrylic on panel 
2012


These are a couple of the paintings I returned to. But after a few months, I just wasn't feeling the acrylic vibe I had going before the aneurysm. Time to regroup.


Changing the medium seemed to be the thing. Shifted to wax/mixed media.

I fell into a what-the-hell, let-me-see-what-happens phase. 

Whoops.  What happened was a bit much. 
Still like it, but it's not quite where I wanted to go.

selvedge 4222
wax and oil on panel
12 x 12
2013


Instead of pigment sticks, I started using unprimed linen with the wax on panel.

That felt much better. 

Calm. Order. In control. That's me.

hereafter
encaustic on linen over board
9 x 12
2013


Not.


eli and the thirteenth confession
encaustic and linen over panel
24" x 36"
2013


More like torn and frayed.


reckoning
encaustic and linen over board
24" x 36"
2013




By late spring, the weather was getting too warm for wax, 
and it was time for another shift, this time to oil.

both untitled, from the Margin series
16 x 20
oil on panel
2013



And through it all, digital.


selvedge grey
digital photo-based inkjet print on drafting film
22 x 30



And monoprints on mylar.


untitled oil on mylar
8 x 10
2013



And oil on panel.


untitled (and probably not quite finished)
16 x 20
oil on panel
2013






5 comments:

  1. and what a long strange trip it has been..no? the work has cone through all of it and continues to intrigue and evoke….love seeing these transitions
    and I do believe that one is done

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! A long, strange trip.... for you too, this past year. Many wonderful changes in your work as well.

      I hope I can leave that one alone. You know how it is.

      Delete
  2. It's wonderful to see the changes in your painting. I love the recent works; they have a dreamlike, searching quality within their minimal expression.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you Altoon! I think of your rugs often and the play of the texture of the textile against the minimal composition...

    ReplyDelete
  4. I really enjoyed this blog. Reading about your visions for a beautiful and clean studio and hen to find it not at all like that really connected with me. I dream of my studio all day if I am not there and as soon as I get home i avoid it if its not clean or its cluttered.

    Beautiful paintings as well!
    Thanks
    Samantha Menzo
    Cloud Nine Studios
    http://cloudninestudiosart.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete