On Setting Up

I am starting this vlog with the intention of keeping track of my image making process. It’s not so much for the viewer as it is for me to keep an evolutionary diary and track the process of my thoughts.

So far, much of the way I approach the painting is worked first in my mind or rather in my emotion before I even setup. Lately, I’ve been in a search of sorts. When I think about what the next painting will look like, I want to do something I haven’t done before. I am looking at the tools I’ve used, the colors, the way I folded the canvas and pressed one corner unto the opposite edge of the canvas. I find this process particularly interesting because it reminds so much of The Rorschach test but at the same time, I don’t believe this is something I am doing deliberately for the same effect.

The way I sometimes fold the canvas is not necessarily in equals parts and I feel that the image I am forming is a result of my perceptual response rather than an anticipation to that of someone else’s. I take a step back, I analyze it, and see where it needs more folding or perhaps more paint. I see it more as self analyzing of my own perception rather than that of whoever views the canvas. When I honestly think about it, in everything I do, I am just attempting to connect outside of the perception of reality we experience. In doing so, I aim to develop a form of communication; a visual language which will be able to transmit a higher vibration of consciousness.  

Taking it a step back, I’ve noticed that the setting up of the canvas influences much of what will happen afterwards including the selection of the colors. As I am opening the canvas and laying it across the room I assimilate the canvas to a living breathing being which I am holding in my hands. As it opens and begins taking up the space in the room, it reminds of me something like the constellations and our ever-expanding universe. On a micro level, this embryo formed days before in my mind when I began to think about it and now it’s becoming the physical manifestation of my thoughts or rather intentions.

As I spread the blank canvas and unwillingly trim the edges (yes, I’ve considered using the full sized canvas and perhaps going bigger in the future), I look and feel around. My thoughts are, if I am a human being operating in a vibrational field of energy, then at some point by coming into physical contact with the canvas, I will alter or affect its vibrational energy. I am speaking to the canvas in my mind as I run my hands along the creased folds. My dialogue doesn’t always translate to words in themselves, more towards a feeling. I move across as I project my intention unto the canvas, I feel in these words, “you are welcomed in this realm of perception,” “you are loved,” “every single inch of you is loved” and then I take a moment, look up to the cans of paint, and I see what colors stand out the most to me. That’s when I begin.

On the Dialogue of the Spiritual

I was asked to name the title of my project and of course, as it is with the way of the words, I came up with a temporary title after having read Kandinsky’s Concerning the Spiritual in Art; I will add my thoughts on this later if I feel inspired to document.