a simple twist of fate / by Philip Tarlow

grey 12   38x38"  mixed media on canvas, at the end of my painting day today

DETAIL: grey 12  38x38"  mixed media on canvas

2:44 PM: some more work has been done on grey 12, re-introducing the face of the woman with the necklace without becoming too subject specific, and maintaining a good balance between the specificity of the face, and collaged and graffiti-like elements. in person it has a warm, rich tone. it's abstract enough to allow the viewer space to dream.

the penis-like appendage on the lower right will likely disappear tomorrow. but right now i feel about ready for our afternoon walk.

 

grey 12, 38x38"  at 11 am

11:40 AM:  grey 12, a victim of my attachment to a particular image, has transformed once again, due to a simple twist of fate. our friend tamar was at the house yesterday afternoon. when i showed her what i had done that day in my studio, she made no comment. but what i got was far beyond any comment she could have made. it was, you could say, a download of her visual encyclopedia of images, plus permission to introduce a new element.

drawing on my own visual encyclopedia and ways of working, i proceeded to alter grey 12, relying completely on instinct. gut. and asking, once again, what the painting wants.

the goal is to create a deliciously complex, layered surface in the deKooning sense, loaded with traces of gestural strokes and drawing revealing my world in present time.