2:33 PM: i did a lot more work on 3/26/25 ano kato today. she’s not there yet, but i’m stopping for the day. tacked to the wall next to dancers, and now featuring 3 of the same figures, sje is looking like a next stage. the added figure of a woman ecstatically dancing with one arm thrown over hear head and bright red shoes, takes the composition to a new level of dream/fantasy. the dancers are swimming in a sea of pinks, tans and yellows.
3/26/25 ano kato 38x32” oil on portrait linen as she looked post-scrub at 10am
9:49 AM: so what do i mean when i say “3/26/25 ano kato revived?” well, yesterday she took a trip that was coming entirely from my head, and not from my heart. i thought it might be cool to do a series of taiko drummers. the key word is thought!
so i scrubbed out what i could, and the result, revealing a couple of dancing figures from the previous incarnation, is interesting; so much so that i think i’ll let it sit for a day or two and see what i feel tomorrow or saturday. it has that suggestive ambiguity i love, and exudes the fresh breath of the unplanned and “accidental.”
the circular bown marks, for example, would not go away, no matter how vigorously i scrubbed them. they are what remian of the drum that the taiko drummer was beating; an echo, one might say, of the taiko beat and rhythm.
she’s a prime example of painting as process, and an example of how, in the end, painterly marks rule.
luck & magic, 32x38”, oil on portrait linen, as she looked following this morning’s refresh
8:56 AM: i made some what i thought were tweaks yesterday to luck and magic and when i saw them this morning i knew they had to go. the paint was still fresh enough for me to wipre them out and while i was at it, i whited over the the area in the lower half of the composition, between the two figues, which was bothering the hell out of both of us.