transparency and overlap (thickness) repost

still trying to figure out where to go from this point.
It has certainly informed my work over the past three years,
but I want to engage this very simple idea more directly
with the two materials in this series of sketches

instant synesthetic reaction

SYNESTHESIA, according to wikipedia, is "a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway..." blah blah blah. Google it if you want some interesting reading. We all experience it to varying degrees.
In the context of my work, this work in particular, it is as simple as a color associated with all the sensations that are associated with a memory (whether or not that memory is specific, vague, or the sum of many sensations)



The synesthetic experience goes beyond colors, into gesture; the gesture of a line, a brush stroke, the figure's position, shapes and composition.




http://www.kayakpsych.smugmug.com/gallery/3730374#214206812-A-LB



these paintings are probably a combination of a reaction against the paintings that are very involved and take a long time to make as well as the past three weekends of crashing down hillsides in fast moving water in my kayak.



http://www.kayakpsych.smugmug.com/gallery/3730374#214256627-A-LB



I wanted something that was fast and airy, work that was immediate and furious, an instant reaction to a feeling of movement.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/15773601@N06/1795112990/

water spiral

12" x 12"
Acrylic


swirling swirling swirling and spinning

Tubed

12" x 12"
Acrylic on canvas

Here is an exploration of transparency, thickness and the power of something that you can see through, but you just know has great mass and strength.


this is a view from inside a wave about to crash on top of you. It's beautiful, but you realize the power becaue you'll soon be engulfed.


layer upon layer upon layer......

simple overlaps

difficult to see in the photo.... but I am amazed at how just the overlap of the transparent acrylic paint (over the pencil lines) can create such a sense of depth and layering. It's most likely because the image is so simple that the overlap and transparency have the ability to be on an equally important ground; whereas if they image was very complex that overlap and transparency would be relegated to an "oh yea, that too" kind of status.

Additionally, I am really excited how the acrylic maintains it's appearance of fluidity even once dry. I think that it dries fast enough, and has the proper viscosity to allow the streaks and variations to remain visible (as a record of both the motion of the brushstroke and the evident liquid form of the the paint)

I have played with ink before and it's a bit too flat. The acrylic emultion stands up, away from the paper a little bit. I just might have to go back and make more of these, and investigate this technique further as a way to explore some of the dichotomies that actually lead to a third state of existence.

fluid/solid
transparent/opaque(overlap)
motion/stillness

I'm really glad that I've been able to realize a new way (for me) to use acrylic paint, and it has opened up more ways to make paintings, while still actually using paint.