2:07 PM: this is gaze 34 at the end of my painting day. the torn areas have been pushed back, so that they don't pop quite so much. the black-blue dark areas at the bottom of the painting have been modified, pretty much for the same reason. am i creating an ancient artifact or a contemporary painting? of course it's impossible to create an ancient artifact; what continues to interest me passionately is the integrity of the picture plane combined with mystery filled content.
to be continued tomorrow,,,
drinking my morning fresh ginger/tumeric root tea
12:32 PM: as i resumed work on gaze 34, which was far too fragmented and hard-edged, i inched closer to my long standing attraction to torn & faded posters, age damaged pompeian frescos & fayum portraits, and so on.
many of us have been conditioned to see the beauty in these phenomena. one could argue that there's an aesthetic here. the aesthetic of the worn & torn.
in this specific instance, the torn aspect emerged quite naturally: as i looked at the painting in a strong cross-light, i spotted little ripples in the collaged paper, where it hadn't adhered properly. so i grabbed an edge & pulled, as one would a scab. the worn came about as a result of extensive scrumbling (a word i made up, referring to my process of going over the painting with a light wash of color, then dragging a scraper over it this way & that, and working into that with my bubble wrap technique).
in the end, it must sing. it's close, but not yet.