Radiant & Broken

"Radiant & Broken" - mixed media on aquabord, 18" x 24".  Available here and at Artfinder.

"...then show me a heart that hasn't been broken by pain or love.  Or a mind that hasn't been knotted with the tensions of life.  To be alive is to be radiant and broken.  Living with an open heart is the art of meeting our brokenness with our radiance."  MARK NEPO

In a perfect alignment of epic proportion, my inner state of being lined up with both Nepo's words and the trust-fall painting methods of Stan Kurth.  With a nod to the more visceral art style of Rick Bartow.

"What is opened in us is always more important than what has opened us."  Nepo's words here are probably the best in the whole book.  We are given permission, sweet reader,  to focus our energy on what has opened in us, and to release our grip on what put us in that opening space.  Whoa. 

Radiant & Broken

A little about the painting (for those who are curious).   It begins with random marks and watercolor on aquabord.  Kurth calls that building a library.  In this case, the board was turned many times, many layers and marks added until, at one point, it was a hot mess.  

Going with the emotion of the day and viewing the mess from many angles reveals a shape or two.  I use acrylic Posca Pens to sketch over top of the watercolor, isolating the shapes.  If they work, acrylic paint mixed with gesso goes over top, filling in and then sprayed to run off and reveal a bit of what is below.  The vibrant openings in the background are nearly pure watercolor.   The contrast with the more matte gesso and acrylic mix is Kurth's secret weapon, I think.  It grabs me every time.

After spending time with Rick Bartow's work, I am even more convinced that we must to keep our mitts off the painting and resist over defining.  The incomplete body form of the woman in this painting, along with the shredded, ragged textures, hints at the parts beneath the skin.  And that's what we're all gunning for - in art and in life - the parts beneath the skin where our hearts are open.  I'll meet you there. :)