Unearthing My Artistic Past

(Originally published on LiveJournal)

The last few months have been a process of disinterring both my life and my apartment. I babble about some of the spiritual matters connected with this process elsewhere on the Internet (at scribblerworks.blogspot.com).  Getting back into working on The Ring of Adonel has been part of that process. Last night, I was moving some boxes of books to make way for a dresser I had just purchased from a neighbor who is moving out of the building. (I really needed the dresser!) And I had to deal with a bunch of old matte boards, unused canvas boards, a large box that is storing some old paintings of mine. And I came up with two paintings I had completely forgotten. Well, maybe I shouldn’t say completely forgotten.

The moment I saw them, I of course remembered them. One is a rather complicated piece of a dragon, done in Celtic knotwork/interweave style — and most of the work is the border around the dragon. There’s a reason it’s incomplete — it’s complicated detail work. I looked at it, and I don’t even recall what some of the intended interlaces were meant to be. (I’d painted in the backgrounds of the various figures and borders in flat colors, and the interlace would/will go over it.) But I otherwise remember it.

[The above is as complete an image as I could shoot at the time of the uncompleted painting. The edges of the knotwork lines was done with metallic paints, so they were rather highly reflective of the flash.

The following two images are detail shots of the painting, showing some of the finer points of the knotwork.]

Underneath the circle of the dragon there is a knotwork of vines, which will have bright pink flowers sprinkled in, once all the vines are painted.

Another detail, showing one of the knotwork squares that sit on the lower corners. The background has red knotwork on a brown background.

The other is a painting in a style I called “stained glass” (the design is broken up into little segments like the pieces of a stained glass window, and all outlined in black, like the lead framing in actual glasswork). It’s a religious piece, of Christ and the implications of the various elements of the world. The central figure had been completed, and a band of the background behind him. But I never got around to finishing it.

I looked at that painting and knew exactly how I intended to finish it, the colors and their gradations, how the segments would break, everything. It was complete in my head, very differently than the dragon painting was. Obviously, the “ultimate design” of the dragon painting had some flexibility, since I can look at it and know the general shape of my intention, and be certain that I can pick up from where I left off and produce a satisfying piece. But I know it will not be exactly as originally intended.

But the Christ painting is very set, I can see it in my head. Anyway, finding these two pieces was kind of exciting. I can finish the Christ painting. And I’m happy about that for a bunch of reasons. There’s the satisfaction of completing it, of course. But it will also let me get back into practice in working with acrylics. And that last reason is sort of important to me right now, because I’ve also begun the first steps toward doing a painting I’ve been thinking about for years.

Okay… so I’m going to tell you about it too. Way back when, I found some terrific photos of Michelle Pfeiffer, and I was struck once again of what a remarkable face she has – the shape of it all, and her blue eyes. And I conceived this idea for a series of paintings of Michelle as various mythological figures. Artemis, Pele, Medusa, Thetis….. those were the first choices. I’ve always called the intended series “Mythic Michelle”. Well, I recently started the preliminary work for the Medusa painting. But I was feeling a bit uncertain about actually doing the painting, since it’s been a long time since I’ve actually WORKED with the paint.

So, now, working on the Christ painting will give me some practice with the actual paints before I tackle the Medusa and the effects I want to achieve in that. You know…. if I didn’t actually have to work for a living, I’d still be very busy working on my various projects. Heh. I’ll never be able to whine “I have nothing to do!”

Comments

sartorias     Sep. 2nd, 2007 12:47 am (UTC)

Good creative mining done! Turn it all into gold.

wild_patience     Sep. 2nd, 2007 10:32 pm (UTC)

You know…. if I didn’t actually have to work for a living, I’d still be very busy working on my various projects. Heh. I’ll never be able to whine “I have nothing to do!” You and me both! I’m loving have a three-day weekend. I played my violin for about an hour this afternoon. There’s reading and knitting to come. And, I need to ride the exercise bike, but I’ll either watch a video or read while I do that. I like the money (of course!) and the structure from working, but, boy, would it be nice not to have to!

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