The Blog
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There is a stage in every painting when I stop knowing exactly where it is going.
I think that may be my favorite part.
This latest work in progress began with a figure—a woman in a red hat, standing with a kind of quiet defiance. She isn’t polished or posed. There’s something a little worn around the edges about her, and I wanted to keep it that way.
Around her, the painting has become a collision of color: deep blues and violets, flashes of yellow, rust, coral and muted green. Paint drips through her clothing and legs. Parts of her disappear into the background while other marks push forward. I’m deliberately allowing some of the drawing, scraping, imperfections and unfinished passages to remain visible.
I don’t want her to feel separate from the abstraction. I want it to feel as though she belongs to it—as if all that color, noise and movement might actually be part of her.
There’s something about her that feels both vulnerable and stubborn to me. Maybe tired. Maybe fearless. Maybe a little of both.
And that is where she is right now.
Still becoming.
I have ideas about what happens next, but paintings have a habit of changing the plan. So for now, I’m listening to her.