The lower half of the painting is, I think, some of the best painting I’ve ever done. I consider the upper half of the painting to be unfinished.
This painting was a part of my 2016 series Neither Will This Stay; Paintings Full of Emptiness. I was learning to focus with a turbulent mind. I practiced buddhist philosophies of emptiness, but it was difficult to embody the concepts. Instead of fighting the experience, I decided to do something with this painting I’d never done before. Rather than have a visual sketch for how the painting was going to look, with every painting session I painted a new character (all from the same butoh dancer Kaoru Okumura). Each session I painted over the top of the previous, as characters and moods took turns in my mind. The painting shifted every session. I was hoping that eventually I’d come to some place of resolution with the figures, but the work never quite found stillness. The painting was not completed. I stopped layering figures when it was time to hang the show. Though I did not feel resolved about the painting visually, I felt resolved about the painting conceptually, in that it embodied the process of my turbulent mind, and I felt right about showing the work as it was, frozen in that moment.
It was a formative experience to work on this series and be guided by images of Kaoru Okumura. The images I took of her dancing brought her presence into the room with me. Day after day, she was my teacher. By the end of my work for the show, with her help, I found emptiness through acceptance, visually expressed in other works in the series. This painting is not complete, but it is finished in that I won’t paint on it again.
The painting was titled Sisters because I felt the characters in my own mind were intimately at odds with each other, but as they were all inhabiting the same mind, I felt they were all from the same family of origin.
Sisters, and other paintings (Black Painting after Goya, and Black Slip) from my Neither Will This Stay series is showing at the Kirkland Arts Center, now and through November 10th.
Today is Design Friday, so your challenge is something the graphic designers will likely be familiar with: figure/ground reversal. “Figure/ground” is a phrase that came from modern German Gestalt psychology. It refers to how our mind organizes forms, distinguishing an object (figure) from its background (ground). In the early 1900s Danish psychologist Edgar Rubin famously experimented …
I’ll be sharing my drawings on Facebook. I’d love for you to share yours too. Maybe we’ll get some people jumping in to join us. Post your pics on the Seattle Artist League‘s Facebook, or Instagram at SeattleArtLeague. #drawingaday #seattleartleague
[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”7824″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][vc_column_text] The Unpostible Post Two days ago I encouraged you all to post your work to the website, in the comments section. I didn’t realize that our WordPress format doesn’t allow comments with pictures. …
My painting “Sisters” is on display, unfinished
Ruthie V, Sisters, Oil on linen 80 x 53″ 2016
The lower half of the painting is, I think, some of the best painting I’ve ever done. I consider the upper half of the painting to be unfinished.
This painting was a part of my 2016 series Neither Will This Stay; Paintings Full of Emptiness. I was learning to focus with a turbulent mind. I practiced buddhist philosophies of emptiness, but it was difficult to embody the concepts. Instead of fighting the experience, I decided to do something with this painting I’d never done before. Rather than have a visual sketch for how the painting was going to look, with every painting session I painted a new character (all from the same butoh dancer Kaoru Okumura). Each session I painted over the top of the previous, as characters and moods took turns in my mind. The painting shifted every session. I was hoping that eventually I’d come to some place of resolution with the figures, but the work never quite found stillness. The painting was not completed. I stopped layering figures when it was time to hang the show. Though I did not feel resolved about the painting visually, I felt resolved about the painting conceptually, in that it embodied the process of my turbulent mind, and I felt right about showing the work as it was, frozen in that moment.
It was a formative experience to work on this series and be guided by images of Kaoru Okumura. The images I took of her dancing brought her presence into the room with me. Day after day, she was my teacher. By the end of my work for the show, with her help, I found emptiness through acceptance, visually expressed in other works in the series. This painting is not complete, but it is finished in that I won’t paint on it again.
The painting was titled Sisters because I felt the characters in my own mind were intimately at odds with each other, but as they were all inhabiting the same mind, I felt they were all from the same family of origin.
Sisters, and other paintings (Black Painting after Goya, and Black Slip) from my Neither Will This Stay series is showing at the Kirkland Arts Center, now and through November 10th.
Gallery Hours:
Tuesday-Friday, 11 AM-6 PM
Saturday, 11 AM-5 PM
Sunday-Monday, Closed
Kirkland Arts Center
620 Market Street
Kirkland, WA 98033
(425) 822-7161
info@kirklandartscenter.org
Ruthie V. Black Painting, after Goya. Oil on linen 72×48″
Ruthie V. Black Slip. Oil on linen 60×40″
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[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][image_with_animation image_url=”7824″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”][vc_column_text] The Unpostible Post Two days ago I encouraged you all to post your work to the website, in the comments section. I didn’t realize that our WordPress format doesn’t allow comments with pictures. …