True confessions: I never clean my palette. I like the messy build up of color. I like the chunky texture. It serves as a gunky history of my work, a genealogy of paintings past. And then, over time, it becomes a tactile work of art in its own right. Unfettered by any of the mental gymnastics or over-ponderous considerations that plague my “real” work, it is the closest to child-mind that I will achieve. It is accidental. It is free.
This might be a stretch but it is, for me, nevertheless true. I love my palette because it is the place of alchemy in my artist process. It is the true liminal space. I begin with pure color. I smashed the pure color together with another color and transform it into a third color, the hue I intend. On a palette, color becomes intention. And then, once transformed, with a brush or knife I lift the color-intention from my palette and in an action that is often more responsive than creative, I place it onto a canvas. It transforms yet again relative to all the color it touches. An image emerges. More color is called for.
And, somewhere in this call and response of color, I become like the palette. The pass-through of alchemy, the door that color passes through en route to something beautiful. And, in the process, perhaps I, too, in my messy build up of life/color, grow closer to that child mind. Unfettered. Accidentally interesting. Free.
“You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough” ~ William Blake
read Kerri’s blog post about my PALETTE
untitled, mixed media 48 x 48IN
Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Uncategorized | Tagged: alchemy, art, artistry, child mind, color, creativity, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, intention, Kerri Sherwood, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, metaphor, painting, palette, process, transformation, William Blake |
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