Friday, October 9, 2009
Vortex
I just returned from a week long residency at Centrum located at Fort Worden State Park near Port Townsend, Washington. One of my goals during this residency was to get to know a few of my paintings better. Normally when I’ve finished a painting it gets hung on my studio wall for a time, then put into storage or shipped off to an exhibition or to a client. It’s a strange but true fact that at the time I make any given painting or collage, the specific driving motivation is, well, unknown. I've learned not to question this but to just work. Sometimes, like with Vortex, the meaning seems pretty obvious after the fact. It is a painting I did earlier this year after learning that someone I hold very dear to my heart had a recurrence of cancer.
Vortex is about those times in your life when you receive news that sends you into a place both emotionally and physically that you could never have imaged. Vortex is about your house burning down or the foundation of your life being kicked out from under you even though you watched the wrecking ball approach. Vortex is about the white-hot emotion that brings you to your knees. It is about the darkness that envelops you and even though the pain is heartbreaking and seemingly unbearable, it is some how the thing that keeps you alive. Vortex is about all engulfing emotion that sends you tumbling headlong into life.
Vortex was recently accepted in the Art Port Townsend “Expressions Northwest” 11th Annual Juried Exhibition, which runs from Oct 2 to Nov. 1 at the Northwinds Art Center in Port Townsend.
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