I did something I never do: painting in public. It was a breezy, clear morning. I loved how we had a momentary dew from the marine layer that drifted in from the nearby Pacific Coast into the canyon overnight. I fled the house in a bright fury, with paints, canvas and supplies in hand, to the nearest park or open space where I could express myself alone. Alone, except for the public eye. It was my policy never to paint in public, but I wanted to rebel against my old thought patterns. And one of the most difficult things to do, and I felt eyes watching me, as it was a crowded outdoor area, mostly full of office workers on their lunchbreak. Every time I painted a swirl on the work seen below, “Little Chaco”, the wind would blow strong into my paintbrush. This painting is inspired by the spiral petroglyphs at Fajada Butte inside Chaco Culture National Historic Park in New Mexico. On Summer Solstice at noon, a large dagger of light pierces the petroglyph. This is what inspired me to paint “Little Chaco”.
Among this new painting is another: “Night Song”, and has driven me to create a new painting series that will have a personalized soundtrack to it. In this way, I will merge art and music, though they don’t need me to merge what is already connected! Funny fact: this piece was inspired by Andy Warhol’s silkscreen on paper titled “Moonwalk”. I had been given my first black canvas in December by my mother, who was also on a painting spree, and I was anxious to begin a new piece like no other that I had created before.
Before my painting career began in my teens, I had started drawing mainly in pencil and/or ink. I yearned to return to this state of simplicity. A visual popped in my mind of two faces: one was whispering something into the ear of another, and I drew this on paper with a pen first. It was music that was being communicated. I wasn’t sure if this was it: was I to make a painting from this drawing, or just leave it alone? For inspiration, I flipped through several “American Art Review” magazines, and when I saw “Moonwalk”, my heart stopped, and I fell in love with the colors.
I knew that I wanted to emulate the vibration of the purity and calm of Warhol’s piece. I really connected to the black canvas and primary color usage. It was completely different from the recent wild, impressionistic impasto paintings that I had been creating.
