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Labels

These large scale paintings are reminiscent of the Abstract Expressionists such as Mark Rothko’s color field painting. Color field painters merged figure and ground. This was a style that attempted to connect modern mysticism to primordial emotions in ancient myth, doing away with the figure.   Appropriating clothing labels to make art is a legitimate form of borrowing or re-contextualization used by artists such as Picasso and Duchamps.  Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s soup labels come to mind. 

Labels-acrylic on canvas

12 x 48

12 x 48

12 x 48

12 x 48

12 x 48

12 x 48

48 x 48

48 x 48

Labels

While I was making these canvas paintings, the meaning of the words were predicting and manifesting synchronistically in my outer life.  The series of paintings seemed to reveal deep inner work.  Along with painting fields of color I was psychologizing: seeing through the words on clothing labels to the underlying poetry that seemed to magically connect to what was happening in my personal life.  While painting “Stretch” my work as a nurse morphed into risky and challenging new opportunities that morphed into even greater opportunities.  “Real Shell Buttons” evolved into “Real Shell” “Real Hell” and “Real” during a time of growth in an interdisciplinary art program.

I happened upon a dead bird, a satisfied cat, then made a self-portrait superimposed on the lost creature, reflecting on the senseless loss.

Here is some recent work, a series of self portraits superimposed on words inspired by kindle reading on a sunny day, with  my image superimposed.