Traveling Through Dimensions
I have been painting, finally able to use my arms, after top surgery seven weeks ago. Writing on the table usually dedicated to my drawing and painting practice, I sit down with a body I do not yet know how to use.
My atelier is organized in dry and wet areas. I am not following the rules to write this note: I do not write in the dry machines’ corner because I have been going through a major disruptive moment: I’m flat. I am learning my way back into my routines. My inner world has been on fire. My chest has been cut open. This track might make you feel what I have been feeling: The Pull
An atelier requires a specific spatial organisation to have access to tools to achieve desired results, but most importantly to set the conditions to be in the flow for several hours. I can’t damage with paint my machines such as pen plotter, computer, scanner, printer. I also need to include easy access to drinking water, food, toilet, and fresh air, because once I enter the flow, fifteen hours can pass without interruption. I didn’t have to learn to be physically reasonable, I was forced to it: through the years, my body got in so much pain to the point of not being able to move, and make art! I learned the hard way to take care of my basic needs. I have been dreaming to be plastic, like a robot, for a long time, so I could go beyond my physical limitations.
I was asking the wrong question: it’s precisely the physical cage that makes the artistic experience possible. The body teaches me to stay with forms before they know what they are.
I’m flat like paper traveling through dimensions.
I develop this generative structure through trial and error. A circle is the starting point: compass and ruler to make tangents. After adding small cuts at the extremities, I fold one time, attentive to reduce the operation steps, so that I can go wild recombining. I iterate until I can’t keep my eyes open. I photograph playing with light and shadows. Then I go back to 2D, printing, drawing, painting.
This painting is the first of a new series. I have been working with watercolors on paper for the last years. This is acrylic on canvas. I mixed the pigments and binder myself, using materials from a paint shop owned by queers.
Spinel Lavender Blue, Porto Red, Caput Mortuum, Ultramarine Blue, Ultramarine Red, Spinel Blue, Spinel Saffron Yellow, Mineral Light Slate Grey, Spinel Green, Spinel Lemon Yellow, Spinel Turquoise, Spinel Orange.
The feeling is: Love.