Since the recent tragedy of losing my son, I have had to struggle to make sense of my expressions in art. To be successful in this journey I turned first to the quietness of Chinese brush painting and Haiku. This allowed me to express my emotions in straightforward lines, brush strokes, and simple words. This is when I created my Red Crane Series. As I started to produce the works I became aware of my interpretation of an artistic voice and language for my mark-making. The Black of my mourning has become the color of my art as I go beyond black, ‘Outrenoir’, to use the words of painter Pierre Soulages.
I am intrigued by the notion that while black is supposed to be the absence of color, its reflective and absorptive surface actually presents a variety of hues. I use different densities of black color derived from hand-ground Chinese Ink, carbon, mars, and ivory acrylic black and thickened onyx house paint. The resulting matte surfaces and reflections of light mix with the intimacy of the paper to create an endless depth. I mix this with a variety of textures and geometric forms to establish an organic motion. Occasionally I use acrylic reds and golds or gold leaf in the process. The layers in my work are structures and forms of emotions. They are part of our individual consciousness, waiting to be touched and expressed.
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