stepping stones

Its hard to articulate why I make work; I do it instinctively - so there's something in the FEEL of doing it. I think while I am preparing the surface, in recent pieces that's painting board,with gesso (or even a step before that, mixing gesso from chalk powder). Then sanding it back looking and feeling for a lead into how the piece is going to progress all the time semi-concious of recent drawing trips and body memory of repeated drawings and movements, I develop a relationship with the surface. 

This also feeds directly into performance/movement drawing - feeling a rhythm and being aware or knowing what will come next by letting the body move only in the moment. Some decisions are concious and these are fed by accumulated knowledge or preference.

I leave a space for interpretation; I make a suggestion - I can't say exactly what the images are as they are an amalgamation of choices and influences throughout the process of building up marks. Influences such as music, mood, location, experience, temperature, a line that repeats, a curve that fits.

So I paint then sand back. The surface and I are now familiar with each other - we have built a relationship. Sometimes the surface dictates a line and I follow its lead, or I make the first move and the surface responds. what follows is the struggle which concerns the image coming forth the desire to control and restrict it. This tension is what makes work sing. 

To manage this dialogue I work on 2 or 3 pieces at a time, allowing unworkable elements to co-exist with more successful ones I like the sense of progression there is always something to move from and onto; like stepping stones I leap across one to the other.