Oh, Canada.
The checklist for packing for my most recent residency at Monson Arts was fairly straightforward: brushes, paints, panels, pencils. Check.
But I also included an item that might be considered an anomaly at a creative residency: a table top hockey game.
Not just any table top hockey game: the 1994 deluxe Wayne Gretzky edition. Montréal Canadiens versus Toronto Maple Leafs. Rink shield and referee included.
Under the Influence of Others
While at Monson Arts, I was grateful for the collaboration of four fellow residents. Each listened to my spiel about Berthold Brecht and gesture as expression of state of mind. Each then explored what their default gesture or pose is and sat for a reference photo or two. What I could not foresee was how the fresh connection with each and my awareness of their various practices would affect the way I paint.
Seeing Through
Since my work started to focus on gesture as both catalyst and metaphor for changing your mind, I’ve struggled with the reality that gesture is, in fact, a movement. And as movement, a gesture travels over space and time. X , Y, Z axis + time. We’re talking about four dimensions and as a painter, I work in only two.