And Then There Were Nine

Small panel paintings 2018

They are little paintings that began as wood panels that were carved and then coated with  bees wax colors. Although the beeswax has some issues with noxious fumes, the material clings nicely to the wood and has the advantage of being easy to scrape away leaving color in the incised lines and textures. There were initially many more of these little pieces. Some were sold or exhibited but mostly they joined up  in sets of two or three mounted together on a frame backing. Once assembled, the pieces took on a new life and continued suggesting new possibilities. I found that cashew lacquer was another form of color that would stick to the wax.     

And the lacquer too lends itself to being scraped away revealing whatever layers were buried underneath. I found my self doing a kind of CPR, pushing in and pulling out surfaces. The art was becoming alive for me with a sense of it breathing. The curious thing is that it went through many manifestations over many months of work and always felt “finished” until it suddenly spoke to me again saying “no, there is more work to do”. There is a moral to this story, finished is just a state of mind, and a thing can be finished many times over.