071217 (A Matter of Time) Painting

American artist, from the mid 1970s. ------ABOUT THE WORK ----- So much in the present day has been photographically catalogued and documented incessantly, that the level of saturation of representation is greater and more instantaneous than at any point ever in human history. ///////// This has many positive benefits but for the work I'm making it requires that I tune this out, close down that "feed" of immediately accessible mechanical rendering and instead, in a psychically quieter method, turn inward in partnership with chance and chaos, to bring into being, imagery that doesn't aesthetically describe any reality that is readily named or so easily accessible. ///////// I am not relying on observation of the external world but working to contribute to it; bringing views and images that are only accessible perhaps to the subconscious, into consciousness. ////////// Whatever forms and vistas arrive, they have a familiar and repeating arrangement of formal elements that I'm beginning to recognize. They seem to adhere to a set of rules that is uniquely their own; one that I'm still working to document and one day more fully understand. ////////// To get there I get out of the way of the work and wait for it to arrive and guide me, letting it reveal in itself, worlds and moments that I'd never have access to through base observation of our overly and instantly documented shared reality. ////////// I can tell you, there is a very distinct sensation when the work takes over and the "ride" begins. I'm reminded of descriptions of Vodún ceremonies where what those practitioners refer to as the Loa are sought and summoned, and the participants are "ridden" by the spirits. ////////// It's hard to put into words without making the process seem unnecessarily dramatic and mystic but it's a very distinct sensation that, more often than not when I'm working while listening to music, makes painting indistinguishable from dancing. ------David Senecal 2017