Anchor piece for B

B asked me what it was that made ‘Water, fire, love’ the anchor piece for the new series. 

One answer is the way that the design, color and totality work in this piece.  I also love its power, it achieves another level the others reach for but don’t quite get to.  It is an entryway to something new. This doesn’t negate its predecessors, that level is also valid. I love all those previous pieces, but for me they led up to  this one. And the ones that came after refer back to it.

If, out of a series of 18 pieces, one soars, that will be the one closest to the artist’s heart.  You already get a taste of it when you are working, you enter ‘flow’ where your own intentions are still present but they get taken over by a larger wave of creative energy. You know exactly what to do with out questioning it and the piece births itself somehow.

When you stand back after it is done, the feeling is one of surprise, gratitude and grace. I see in front of me something I never could have planned for. I never knew I had it in me and I don’t know where it came from but I recognize it down to the depths of my soul.

And once, once in a very long while, someone else recognizes it at the same level. This is the greatest gift an artist can receive, in my experience.

So B, thanks for everything, but thanks most of all for that.

Water, fire, love

Title: For Marianne

Title: Water, fire, love

Title: Warfhuizen Moonday

Continuing on with recent work, here are some more from the series (see more in ‘Gallery of Current work’ under the ‘Pages’ heading to the right).

The far left one I just made for a friend, it is only 3 by 3 inches.

I like the one in the middle best. When I look at it I get that gut feeling of connection and rightness that comes with one’s best work.  In person it is strong with the dark turquoise shades, and the little metallic gold lightning flames just glow.

I guess one of the things that is most satisfying with breakthroughs like this, is that I can recognize elements of some of the art which has really moved me in the past recurring in this work. Like the period when I was immersed in Krabbé’s oil paintings. I hit a dead end trying to imitate them, but after having let it go, I see elements of what I liked most surfacing in this work.  For instance, some of the forms, but most of all the feeling of lightness and play.

Once again I have experienced:  in art, if you want to do something, you need to approach it sideways, never head on. At least that is how it works for me.  Things need to be left alone to ferment and ripen in their own time, and then, when you least expect it, it snaps into place entirely surprising you, yet entirely your own.