Wear New Pants In Sister-City Struggle, oil paint, canvas drop-cloth, the longest staples I have ever used/seen, plywood, 2011, 15″ x (3+3.25)”

This painting was a pain. in. the. butt. I can’t remember such a struggle before. It has to happen at some point — a battle. A lot of times they’re like gifts. They occur so nicely, a casual delight that can happen in a blink or sometimes a blurrrr. BUT, this one. This one burnt me out. I give you permission to categorize this painting as an artwork. No, an art-work from hell.

Increasingly more so, the paintings are starting to lose the rubbing aspect I had depended on earlier. Here, it was primarily painting, stretching, un-stretching, turning, twisting, reversing, painting, placing. All that process with the oil paint being pressed against itself, in and out of the stretcher, creates the surface quality I’m attracted to.

It has been a while, but this one here reaffirms my associations w/ a sort of artifact from-the-past-brought-back-to-the-future characteristic (or vice-versa) — a futuristic alien-like primitivism.

3/4 view

3/4 view

backside revealed

detail