1:59 PM: my process is like breathing. so today is like the out breath. I went over what I did yesterday with titanium/zinc white oil paint, applied with a large flat brush. then I pressed sheets of bubble wrap (with the small bubbles) onto the surface, creating a subtle pattern and at the same time revealing shadows of yesterdays bold marks.
what i’ve done thus far is inspired by a photo I found of workmen uncovering and cleaning an ancient floor mosaic, which is a few thousand years old. there are a lot of patterns, and a lot of faces, male and female.
on the out breath, tomorrow morning, I may continue along this path. the paint will have dried by then, so rather than painting wet into wets I am today, i’ll be brushing the wet oil paint onto a dry or almost dry surface, so that it no longer picks up the underlying color. wet into wet generally results in a more painterly outcome. dekooning knew this, which is why he lay newspaper on top of what he had painted that day, so that the next morning, after removing the newspaper, he could have that wet surface he loved painting into. eventually he discovered that, if he left the newspaper in place, it would behave as a collage and add variety to what he was doing.