The overhead or side view of surfaces in the painting process is often suggestive of the topography of landscapes or skin. This concept of observation is also apparent in almost any object or surface when viewed from a non ordinary angle or perspective. The pursuit of observing in this fashion can lead to a shift in perception and bring to rise questions of our agreed upon realities of "seeing things as they are."
What kind of magic could this lead one to?
The opening in a reflection to another space, peering through solids, shifting gravity, becoming transparent. It seems as though the only limit is one's imagination. The creative process, scratching through the "surface" is an engaging start down the path in seeing anew.
Shifting Gravity / An Opening in the Reflection
Black gessoed canvas with wet acrylic varnish tails traveling from bottom to top.
24" x 108"
Mining the Macro
Close up of marble dust and acrylic varnish on drop paper
The Topography of Paper
Close up of mulberry paper with wet Sumi ink.
Peering Below the Surface
Paper with images and plastic tubes brilliant with sunlight.
The foreground image, in shadow, has the appearance of a vertical plane rising beneath the whiter horizontals above alluding to the impression of an underground system of rootlike tendrils and illogical shapes.
Opening to the Light
An opening through the dark mass of the concrete floor to a brilliant void.
Void to Infinite Space
Mulberry paper before and after inking with Sumi Ink
27" x 148"
Lower section of inked paper was sprayed with water prior to inking, creating a wrinkled/rippled effect similar to a tidal zone or mud.
"Steel Wool Study"
Oxidized steel wool on paper creates the rusted hairlike impressions and the unoxidized steel wool alludes to the cool carbon inclination of matter. Hair, plant roots, river systems all manners of living things transposed in between states of being.
Drying Sunflowers at Harvest
The topography of the land and body is echoed in these drying forms
The topography of the land and body is echoed in these drying forms
"Rose Petal Painting" (laying flat)
Peering across a plane of pedals and pins what kind of frolic awaits one?
All images and text courtesy and copyright of Glenn and Denise Carter
