Spirit of Illumination

#3 – Tuesday, April 5th

This past week I came across an article on Clyfford Still. Detroit is building a museum to house his work and there’s a bit of a mash-up about selling his paintings to fund the museum . . . but that wasn’t what piqued my interest.  It was the article, reminding me of his paintings. Or should I say the memory of his paintings. In the late eighties, as I  was in the process of my own transition from figurative imagery into abstraction,  Clifford Still’s work along with Richard Deibenkorn’s Ocean Park series helped illuminate my journey. (My first exhibition at Perimeter Gallery in Chicago, was in 1980 and featured my figurative paintings . . . an exhibition of my new paintings will open at Perimeter Gallery in November)

I’ve been working on this particular canvass for months now, and as of my last post not willing to share, but it’s feeling rather near done and in the spirit of illumination, from Clyfford Still, a quote that seems appropriate to the process  . . .

“I never wanted color to be color. I never wanted texture to be texture, or images to become shapes. I wanted them all to fuse together into a living spirit.”

Thankfully I have wonderful friends to assist me through my initial social media bumbling and stumbling . . . Lucy Slivinsky (who’ve I known for just about ever) is an amazing sculptor and has been patient and gracious enough to let me bend her ear . . . lucyslivinski.com