"Words"

($40.00.....6" x 6".....mounted on a 1/8" depth gesso board)

"Words have the power to set people's hair on fire or be the arms of hope." This is my contemporary rewording of a proverb from the Bible. That verse reads..."Words have the power of life and death." It's something worth thinking about.

This piece is a classic case of letting the piece tell me what I need to do next. I liked the flourishing in "Words" at the bottom because it "echoed some of the movement of lines in the piece. So as I began to think about a quote base on words, I let the colors tell me the rest of the story. The red and blue stand for the two opposites in the quote.

By adding even more flourishing to the piece, I was symbolizing the continual flow of words that seem to be everywhere these days. With radio and television or being in a work environment with others, you could literally not have more than 30 min. a day (or less) without hearing words.

I am becoming more convinced by the day that it is much more powerful to begin a piece of artwork with spontaneous techniques and allow the textures, unplanned shapes, and colors dictate the final outcome. Certainly decisions can be made about color and textural choices in advance, but the use of spontaneous techniques will allow for many unexpected "jewels" to take place. Some of the spontaneous techniques I like are mono printing, pouring medium, gestural writing, mark making, applying color with a brayer, and the best of all is cropping. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.

Please contact me personally to inquire about this piece.