- Published on
"Truncated" - mixed media on cradled board, 24" x 18" x 1.5". Ready to hang. (Cradled sides are painted, back is pre-wired for hanging) Available at Artfinder.
Inigo: You know, It's very strange. I have been in the revenge business so long, now that it's over, I don't know what to do with the rest of my life.
Westley: Have you ever considered piracy? You'd make a wonderful dread pirate Roberts.
from The Princess Bride
Inigo! He is looking for a second act. A new career. A life change. What to do? How about painting? With those sword skills, painting should be a breeze. :)
Back in the studio for mounds more of reconstituted crackle paste and another woodland piece. This one without a figure, celebrating instead the geometry of the trees softened by a "come hither spring" palette.
Inigo: You know, It's very strange. I have been in the revenge business so long, now that it's over, I don't know what to do with the rest of my life.
Westley: Have you ever considered piracy? You'd make a wonderful dread pirate Roberts.
from The Princess Bride
Inigo! He is looking for a second act. A new career. A life change. What to do? How about painting? With those sword skills, painting should be a breeze. :)
Back in the studio for mounds more of reconstituted crackle paste and another woodland piece. This one without a figure, celebrating instead the geometry of the trees softened by a "come hither spring" palette.
Spring is already here in Florida, where last year's leaves are falling as spring buds push them out of the way. The lake is teaming with tadpoles, and muscovy ducks are nesting. Mockingbirds spar in the trees like dueling Inigos...their normally delightful songbird repertoir replaced with harsh hissing and crackles.
I just finished a book by Cixin Liu: The Three-Body Problem, a science fiction beauty recommended by my science beauty sister. And wow. A fabulous story, but what really grabbed me was the author's postscript. "There's a strange contradiction revealed by the naïveté and kindness demonstrated by humanity when faced with the universe..." He describes how we destroy other civilizations on earth, yet look up to outer space and assume extraterrestrials would be civilized, noble, kind and peace-loving. He suggests a reversal: "Let's turn the kindness we show toward the stars to members of the human race on Earth and build up the trust and understanding between the different peoples and civilizations that make up humanity." Just the right message for our planet today. Maybe Inigo could become an earthly ambassador for peace.
I just finished a book by Cixin Liu: The Three-Body Problem, a science fiction beauty recommended by my science beauty sister. And wow. A fabulous story, but what really grabbed me was the author's postscript. "There's a strange contradiction revealed by the naïveté and kindness demonstrated by humanity when faced with the universe..." He describes how we destroy other civilizations on earth, yet look up to outer space and assume extraterrestrials would be civilized, noble, kind and peace-loving. He suggests a reversal: "Let's turn the kindness we show toward the stars to members of the human race on Earth and build up the trust and understanding between the different peoples and civilizations that make up humanity." Just the right message for our planet today. Maybe Inigo could become an earthly ambassador for peace.
I am particularly drawn to: the clean sharp lines of the trees AND the little spots where they are NOT clean and sharp; the ghost saplings in the lower background with the horizontality of their bark counterbalancing their verticality; your title
I love creating these tree pieces. Controlled process, but uncontrollable outcome. The artist knows NOTHING until the tape is pulled at the very end. A trust fall. But I love doing it. :)
1. lay down crackle paste mixed with black gesso
2. score the paste with marking tools. let dry.
3. using painter's tape torn into pieces, tape off tree shapes.
4. with tape in place, paint tree canopy and background. let dry.
5. remove tape. voila!