Dancing With Canvas

Here is an explanation about something that is probably better left unexplained. (Why do we humans use so many words?) This is how I create a painting. It is a symbiotic process. The ingredients are: a movie and/or music, a painting, a blank canvas.

I hear music and/or see a movie I like. Sometimes the movie is subtitled and I just listen to the beautiful words like they are music. Sometimes the movie has a soundtrack that moves me.
I see a painting that moves me. A blank canvas sits before me. Sometimes there is a plan, sometimes not. The dance begins. It is like going into a trance, and time stands still. Sometimes when I am done creating, I am surprised to see that 12 hours has gone by when it seemed like only a few minutes.

It was July 22, 2007.

The movie was Wim Wenders' film, Until the End of the World.

The painting was called Sweet Banana by Gabriela Trzebinski.


While watching Wenders' film I was intrigued by the Pigmy music that William Hurt's character played in the car. Equally intriguing to me were the aboriginal characters in the movie. How ignorant I am about aboriginal culture.

As I danced with the canvas, I thought about dreaming and creation. This is what I came up with:

Dark Angels, 2007, 24" x 24", acrylic on canvas.

By far one of my most eccentric paintings, at first I even felt a little afraid of it. Now I love it. I imagine these angels standing at the brink of creation and facing the pure potentiality unafraid. Swirls seem to be a recurring motif for me in my desire to express movement. I don't mean for it to sound pretentious or to over-intellectualize it because it's really about a feeling.