I took the photo of the cage with a background of the surface of the table on which I do my paintings. For no other reason than that is was convenient to do so, or was there actually another reason? – in the form of an awareness which made me feel that this was an interesting thing to do in that instant, for its own sake.
The photo turns out to be more interesting to me than I had imagined. It struck me the contrast of the casual nature of the paint marks relative to the rigid structural lines of the cage. The lines of the cage give it structure but that is structure strictly according to its function, which is to contain and imprison. That would be the case if the door were closed. But the door is opened, and the juxtaposition takes on a new significance. The bird’s new freedom is invisible, I have never seen that bird but I think I feel, see, understand something about freedom by the absence of something, rather than its presence.
The above is the beginning of a new philosophical strand which I am interested to try and understand, myself, and then correspond with pictopoiesis. This could be a very long post and wandering post if I allow myself to go into it now, suffice to say, something has struck me which I shall later refer back to – and need to think about in the meantime.
Meanwhile, I have to move the painting-in-progress on:
