 "The Melt Begins" 2022 When April arrives all we want, in this area of Canada, is to see the snow MELT. This always seems to inspire something in me that requires me to express how I feel about the melt down. This year the concept of the slow tedious melt that gradually reveals what lays beneath was my visual. Beginning with a grounding layer of multi coloured and patterned collage papers, I created the initial layer of the work with texture whose topography would show through on all the layers to come. This layer would soon be concealed with several more layers of coloured paint applied in patches and relief lines. Every few layers, I would pause and sand back to reveal, as in the melt, what was below. The final layer was applied with white, like the snow, that was still hanging on through until mid-April. The final sanding revealed just enough to give me the feeling that spring was about to surface with joyful colouration, nodding towards the warmer days of summer.
This initial work is the first of a series that I am planning on the theme of layers, stratification, uncovering, revealing, unearthing, excavation... Each piece will be alive with a history of the past layers left behind. The collage elements will be important as they will consist of past paintings, sketches, letters, photos, printed words, most of which you will not be able to read but parts may be seen. Viewers will bring to each painting their own deeper history and unearth what they need to see.
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