New Work: Can You Hear Me Now?

Can You Hear Me Now?
Image size 12" x 16" matted to 16" x 20"
painted acrylic paper on watercolor paper

I'll admit right away that this piece just makes me laugh. I laughed when I was making it, when I was finishing it and then photographing it. And I will further admit that I imagined a fisticuffs type of showdown between Hillary and The Donald. I am not that old but I don't remember such hatred, rudeness and downright meanness being on display on the political stage and elsewhere. People feel perfectly free to say the most outrageous things, to level accusations and point at others (forgetting about glass houses), and to forgo any sort of decorum in favor of complete rudeness. Honestly, civility has gotten trampled to death and left by the side of the road to die. I feel this way about a lot of stuff that I see and I suppose somehow it came out in this piece, only in a goofy kind of way. Coping I suppose.

The sketch started as those two shapes in the middle. I have been looking at a lot of pottery lately and I saw some similar shapes in my travels around the Internet. I took the two shapes and embellished on them to make a little story. If anyone reading makes any sort of associations with any of the shapes please let me know. I am genuinely interested. 

The stripes as well as the color combination are new for me. I printed the stripes from my computer onto painted paper then covered the paper with a matte clear varnish. The varnish ensures that I can wipe the paper free of glue while I am working. I was fascinated to see how the stripes added movement, direction and a wonderful pop of contrast. I used them in small amounts though, being the cautious person that I am. Is anyone familiar with the work of Sam Vanni or Stuart Davis? Vanni used a lot of lines in his work and Davis used a lot of black and lettering. The contrast provided by those elements is very appealing to me. There is a real crispness to the works that I like as well. I love being able to draw on the ideas of those artists that have come before me. Somehow, combining some of those ideas with my own creates a very fun sort of synthesis for me. And I will say that I really enjoy this new color combination. At first I was dismayed because it seemed like Coke and Pepsi were fighting! Once I added the green though I started to feel better. I make associations for every color, incidentally. So, the pieces are always infused with meaning for me from that standpoint.

OK, enough! Testing out a new substrate today, going for a walk, and enjoying some unseasonably warm weather. California. Gotta love it!

Thanks for reading and commenting,

Libby