I begin a painting by spontaneously throwing paint down and covering a canvas with a colorful underpainting. I continue doing this while looking at the canvass from all angles until an image appears to me and I define the image. The nature of paint is messy and I would like to control that as little as possible. The less control I exert, the more I like the painting. This is a reminder that order comes from chaos. I know a piece is done when there is a balanced composition, and a story told. I would like to communicate something simple. When people see my work, I would like them to feel connected or drawn to it, because of the thick texture of the paint, and the serendipitous story.
The best part about painting is the “non-thinking” mind that happens while I work. My favorite tool is my hand because it’s quick and direct. I have been trained traditionally, but I like to use my hands and feet to push paint around. While our mind -dominated world is changing to a more feeling world, we struggle for balance. Every painting is an opportunity for me to connect with a more intuitive part of myself. In general, we are so disconnected from feeling, that when I pour feeling into a canvass, others can’t help but be attracted to it. Our feelings are helpful, but somehow we make them into an identity, or wrong. Our feelings are stored in our bodies and we have left our bodies. We ignore our bodies. Our bodies are constantly communicating to us, and listening will make the difference in our human presence here on earth.
If I feel a painting is well balanced with good connection in the studio, it will do the job of connecting others outside the studio. We are a world of people that want to connect by our very nature, but are losing that ability because we do not know how to express how we feel. If my paintings could speak, they might say, “I know you are doing the best you can. Buck up.”
25 West Park Square Marietta, Georgia 30060 [map] 770.427.5377 email: dk@dkGallery.us
