I have painted a lot of marbles lately. Whenever I post a picture of a new painting, I get "Don't lose your marbles!" Or some variation on that. And I've had people come out and ask me why I am painting so many marbles. A couple of years ago, I posted here about why I was interested in marbles. They are glass. They have varying values, colors, shadows. All of the things I'm interested in as a painter. But as an artist, lately I have been interested in the use of the marbles as representations of people, or ideas. Groups.
I have always personified objects in my mind. I do it everywhere I go. Light rail cars become giant animals gobbling people up. Salt shakers are dancing ladies. Even mountains are sleeping harems of women. The more I painted marbles, the more they became something else.
Just before the election of 2016, I painted a large line of marbles, that I had been planning for months. I was exploring some things like balance. White and gray, up against color. Just painting skills. I finished it in September, and the election was on my mind. Much of the rhetoric was about diversity, inclusion. I decided to call it "Community," because although the marbles were very different, they sort of fell in line. Not a straight line, but they looked to be going somewhere. It was a positive, hopeful thing, to me. Three days after the election, I had my marbles, and cups out on the table. It wasn't long before I had them sorted. I was thinking about how comfortable sorting could be. I was feeling the discomfort that my very identity had been shaken by what was happening in my country. I had to re-think some things. Re-evaluate. The very thought of identity, (which is the name of the painting, posted above), was becoming a hydra, a snake pit, a pitchfork. I hadn't even realized what people had associated with one part of my identity. My political leanings had been leading people to assume things about me, that they then hated. I saw people doing this in all camps. And I saw people refusing to be put in silos at all. So before I knew it, I was painting this insane painting with a million marbles, about the grouping I was seeing, without judgement. I was just observing that it was happening. I started "Identity," a few days after the election, and finished it the day the electoral college voted. It was satisfying, but I couldn't stop.
I painted a commission of marbles, with a specific friend in mind, and then I set out to paint a new painting with steel ball bearings. When I was a kid, playing marbles, it was bad form to bring "steelies" to the playground. If you cherry dropped a steely, you could break someone's boulder. Arguments would ensue about whether a steely could really be played as a marble. Some felt that if it was round, and the same size, it was fair game. The point was not to destroy a marble, it was to win it, but there was always that one aggressive boy who would bring his steelies to school, and break everyone's boulders, (shooters), just for the sheer joy of destruction. I have always understood this feeling. It's power. Raw power. It is much easier to destroy than to build. It is perhaps closer to our true nature to exercise the impulse to break, shatter, threat, dominate. That is actually one of the reasons I have come to love and celebrate glass. Glass can be exquisite and beautiful, but it takes protection. It's fragile. The slightest carelessness and it is gone. I have some glass things that belonged to my great-grandmother, and to my great-great-grandparents. I have glass things, that could have been dropped while being washed, or carelessly knocked off a table, that are well over 100 years old. We all have parts of ourselves that are fragile, delicate and beautiful. We also have that impulse to throw a steely at everyone else's delicacy. That next painting was called, "Reflect." That is what I was doing, I was reflecting. It was about power. Domination. The strong man.
Again, without judgement. Just a recognition. An observation. I'll leave further interpretation to the viewer, but there are a lot of little things going on here. And to be clear, I do not regard power as an ultimate good or evil. It just is what it is. It's there. This painting was finished February 4th, 2017.
After that, I did a small painting of a cup of blue marbles. Still exploring grays and whites, I used exaggerated color of the wrinkled cloth to express the dramatic and bruised feeling surrounding people who were politically Left.
This one is called, "Bruised," and I finished it February 11, 2017.
Followed by, "Hell or High Water," finished February 27, 2017. In this one, the cloth is almost a calm sea. Still. The feeling was resolution. A moment of seeming unity and confidence.
By February, I was very frustrated with what was happening to my country. The obvious lies and abuse of power in government. The reactions from people. Not just far away people, but people in my life. I saw people in various states of numbness, denial, fear, anger and not knowing which way to turn. Which resulted in another painting called, "Scatter." I'm not posting that one, just yet. I'm saving some goodies for an upcoming show. I finished that one the other day, and I have to say, that all of these marble paintings, are perhaps, helping me keep track of my marbles. I am processing what has happened, through my art, and it is really satisfying.
Stay tuned. I will post info about my show in July, as it gets closer.
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