In the first stage of the painting, I begin to set down shapes
Shape:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shape_and_form_(visual_arts)
Specifically, it is an enclosed space, the boundaries of which are defined by other elements of art. Shapes are limited to two dimensions: length and width.
These shapes grow from within. Each one feels its own extension and is aware of the other elements of the pictorial space, in particular, those elements in close proximity. They touch or almost touch each other, or not. The shapes have the sensitivity of sensate living things – one of the ways to keep the painting alive. I breathe life into it. It exists, as it is that is enough. I exist as I am that is enough (Whitman). Metaphor.
At the very beginning, the breath of life is blown into it, transferred from me. Throughout I continue to transfer myself to it – material and immaterial. I help myself to both. A single line, (thinnest of membranes) eventually encloses the shape. The cell. The enclosing circular – my motif, the circular gesture. Circular will also imply the cyclical when depth comes in to play later on as translucent layers accumulate. The surface is a nutrient field. Cultivation.
Colour implications: strong subjective associations accompany each colour unavoidably. Each colour a different voice. Polyphony. Alternative histories already countless. Transformation. Symbiosis too as the whole is something other than the sum of the parts. Pictopoiesis in action.
