'The Conversation' is a mixed media extravaganza. With each medium, a new layer is used in the message thats being communicated. But what is the story being told? It's different for each person, to be sure.
My studio was packed jammed with old & new art materials / paintings when I began working on this piece. I literally had, 1-2 feet in front of me, to paint it. Over 30 years ago I developed a technique in acrylic paints using interference/irricescents, layering & glazing them in a drip and splatter method, giving a wonderful translucence and uncanny sense of depth & perspective, as my first coats. Next I used my oil paints to block in and create shapes. (note, oil can be used over acrylic, but not the opposite). Because of the large size and the very narrow space I was painting in. I found myself running the painting outside to the front yard to get some distance from and perspective on what was being developed. As the design became clearer I just went with it, free will & association. Adding bits of charcoal, scribbles in oil pastel, line work in ebony pencil & finally some 18k gold leaf, in a fractal meets chaos approach.
When completed, this piece read on several levels. Close up almost as a petroglyph or hieroglyph of sorts, or perhaps a map. From a distance, I had many occassions to hear the stories created from viewers. Most persons saw figures and created elaborate dialogues from within. One story created by one such couple, as told. They saw two people standing at a pub table in some cavernous pub in the UK. The two were being entertained by a magician who stands off to the right throwing a gold hankerchief as the magic happened, and they continued to eleborate. It was great fun to hear these two, & to hear them turn my painting into their adventure. To me that’s exactly what art should do, each person making it their own, on their terms. Many others shared stories of what they saw in this painting, too. What great fun it was to hear from each of them participate.
I couldn’t have been more thrilled when it was acquired and found its home in a downtown highrise at a Chicago City Law Firm. The Conversation, made sense there as it was in a more public veiwing space, to be pondered and enjoyed. As an artist, it doesn’t get any better.
Mediums used~(acrylic & oil paint, oil pastel, charcoal, 18k gold leaf & ebony pencil on 20oz, cotton duck canvas) & framed in a clean lined floater frame, gold face and warm black grained sides.
SOLD 'The Conversation', 70"x40" mixed media on canvas
THE CONVERSATION
Chicago Law Office
Detail