Chance inspiration vs. methodical compositions
Walking in the City, installation view, Mezzanine Gallery, Wilmington, Delaware
Inspiration images and color palette example
02.25.2025
This is the final week for Walking in the City, my solo exhibition of a selection of the work resulting from my 2023 trip to Venice. The response has been very positive and the space is large so I was able to give the work the space it needs. During the last couple of weeks I have been approached for interviews about the show from local news outlets here in Delaware. One was an audio interview I did with Delaware Public Media. The interviewer brought up something in our conversation that I had not really considered before, the contrast between the way in which I collect my inspiration and the way in which I compose my paintings.
The images I collect that inspire my work are collected spontaneously, totally by chance. Place, time, the weather, and my mood or state of mind all play a role. The thing I see and record only looks a certain way at a certain time, in a certain place, in certain light, and with my openness to observe my surroundings. The space or object I record could look completely different even 5 minutes later or 5 minutes before I came across it.
On the other hand, the process I use in compiling the inspiration images and breaking them down to create my compositions is very methodical, structured. With this series, I recorded the time of each observation. I grouped the images together by time in groups of 4. So each painting is composed from 4 images. I then pulled the color palette directly from the images. I created small, hand-painted collages for each painting as a study for the final piece. As I work on the paintings I use the collages and the photos as reference, they are taped to my studio wall right now. With all of this said, there is still change that happens during the painting process but I definitely wouldn’t call it spontaneous.
I think the images I collect are the vehicle for my paintings, the starting point, the fuel for the fire. They’re a way for me to see my surroundings from a different perspective, a chance to slow down a bit. The process I use to plan my compositions is a way for me to understand what I experienced to a greater degree. I’m looking more closely at the images, I pulling out the specific parts that caught my eye, I’m determining the scale of each bit of inspiration, I’m figuring out how the individual sightings will work together to tell the story of those moments in time. I think utilizing both ends of this spectrum (chance and structured process) not only helps me to solidify the memory of the original source but also share with the novice viewer that abstract painting can be planned, prescribed, and process-based and it’s still abstraction.
I’ve been considering the everyday as a source for my abstract paintings for over 15 years now, in some way or another, and have no plan to slow down any time soon. There’s too much good stuff out there, or right under your nose, to discover.
