Swathes: An ongoing painting project for Research methods class.

Swathes: An ongoing painting project for Research methods class. 

One definition of swathe is to enfold or envelope as wrappings do. I believe my recent paintings exemplify a process of wrapping or layering of acrylic paint on inset wooden frames using a palette knife. The palette knife allows me to layer thick impasto interweaving and overlapping swathes of paint. When I was 17 years old, and a junior in High school, I had enrolled in earth science class. One project from our teacher was to create a volcano three dimensional model. I made mine out of plaster of Paris, coated it with gesso and painted it. I created more of an expressionistic model than a realistic one. I then joined the science club. Another project consisted of creating layers of stratification three dimensionally .I reviewed two dimensional illustrations, the kind with dot patterns, zig zags and crosshatch. Perhaps those experiences were buried only to recently resurface.

This summer I had located a number of small wood frames, the kind you can insert tiles or mosaic. I decided to repurpose these frames. The protrusions caused by raised lip molding allowed me to pile on or swathe if you will, impasto paint layers .I have also used textured paste medium to give my acrylic the consistency of cake icing. One of my undergraduate mentors used to joking say, I don’t paint, I butter in reaction to the great COBRA Dutch artist’s quote: I don’t paint, I hit! The buttering part is a good analogy for me.

My series of paintings, now numbering 20 plus evoke a kind of landscape feel. In fact, I find it more interesting to view these small format works on a tabletop. These works are topographical in scope. In the mid 1960’s my mother had taken me to see Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. I had seen the film in its original Martin Cinerama format in St. Louis, Missouri. The theater boasted of a huge curved screen and three projectors giving the film a believable quality and a strange three dimensional effect. I distinctly remember the end of the famous slit screen technique which ended with aerial views of sea and mountains bathed in live action footage replete with negative image effects using color films and processing. Those eerie landscapes had an expressionistic feel to them, as the effect was to depict the multicolored landscape of Jupiter as the space probe descends to the planet.

Maya Lin’s Disappearing Bodies of Water and her topographical land art forms are also quite inspirational. They remind me of the ancient Mississippian mound builders of the past.

  Swath # 22, acrylic on wood, 11” x 15”

Thus, experiences of viewing and building models have informed these visual efforts cannot help but to associate my palette of intense colors and knife applications whereby, blobs of paint jostle between applications. It takes about three days for each painting to dry. Although beautiful, the color also reminds me of a toxic environment full of polluted land forms and irradiated soil. When the paint fully dries, the paint settles in on its own reminding me of how the earth’s surface appears as it recovers from severe weather or from the impact/impress of humankind in terms of construction, destruction and war.