Douglas Witmer
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Monday, October 02, 2006
painted, recently
[click to enlarge]
Here are three paintings that are coming into the station. Above, tentatively titled "Himmelein" (German diminuitive for sky or heaven). The blue vertical band has become a little less active, and the grey white a little whiter and a bit pearlescent.
This one is tentatively called "Garden Spot." It started quite green and yellow, but after my two visits to San Francisco's Asian Museum a few weeks ago, I couldn't hold back the celadon.
This one will be "Cardinal." The pink and orange bands have already been painted over with grey and white and will be adjusted more as necessary. It's a new version of a painting I started on residency in Maryland, (the one in the center of this image), which is now destroyed.
2.10.06 
3 Comments:
Phewww...lookin good.
By 
GIERSCHICK, at
10/02/2006
I know, I know, I already commented, but I've been thinking about your paintings influenced by natural (i.e., of the natural world), and was wondering...is Cardinal based on a certain experience with a cardinal (I suppose Mockingbird is similar in that way)? Or is it more of a fascination with the possibilities of mixing the elements of the colors you experienced; the ones you mix; the title; and the viewer's response?
By GIERSCHICK, at
10/04/2006
Hi Tim--
Your question gets back to the idea of a personal narrative or anecdote behind the painting. It's something Jonathan Walz brought up over a year ago, related to a piece I made for friends of ours who lost twin babies. I've always been meaning to write about this more. I haven't partly because, believe it or not, I've simply been pondering all this time. And I'm reticent.
I formed part of an answer in the interview with Chris Ashley on Minus Space late last year. If I may quote myself:
"To a degree, I have always been an observational painter in that things I see or fragments from things I see undergo a process of distillation in the studio. "
This is is still true, but it only describes my activity going in one direction...from something observed into the painting process. More and more I realize it also works the other way around. That is, I paint, and in the process see that I have found my way to something that has been there for me all along.
It's funny to bring this up in relationship to this particular post, because two of the works shown represent both ways.
"Cardinal"...it's just from the colors of cardinals. From being beautifully awakened by the call of a cardinal one morning in March. Observing cardinals in the cold light of winter. Wanting to mark that experience for myself.
"Himmelein"...I painted for a few weeks until this image began to solidify. And, talking to myself as I do while painting, I talked about a little slice of the sky. (By the way, I'm about to have a little slice of pizza, but likely not make a painting about it.) And then the German word came to mind. The father of the family I lived with in Germany in 1993 was an astronomer. He took me for long drives and taught me all the words in German that I know for things pertaining to the heavens.
But, of course, these are my stories. And telling them to anyone runs the risk of me cutting off a potential way toward meaning for someone else.
I like to title my work whenever possible. And I like to choose a word that may add to the framework of the feeling I feel for the painting, and to suggest that it does have a personal story behind it, something that makes it matter in the world. Sometimes it isn't possible to
After that, I prefer to stop, and hope that a person looking at the painting and considering its title (or not) brings their experience to bear, and that their own unique meaning is achieved.
Tim, I might bring this question and answer out of the margins and form it into a post if that's okay. I also want to add something from an early 90s interview with George Lawson (who I met several weeks ago). He talks about an idea of the "open image" and really speaks to this issue.
By Douglas Witmer, at
10/04/2006