As the year winds down and I prepare for my sorta-annual bonfire of canvases that don’t make the cut of hanging around, I always feel a need to dream up some new challenges for a new year.  I can’t really articulate those yet but as I was studio cleaning I found a stack of unused canvases and some leftover interior wall paints that were way past their “use by” dates (kidding of course).  So I pulled them all out and tried to leave my comfort zone.

If you know my “work” then you know how far afield this is for me.  Colors, drips, splats and splotches.  Actually both pieces began with a “thing” in mind (that’s just me) but the more I got into it the more I began to have definitive ideas about where the next chunk of color should go, and whether it must be light or dark. I lost all concept of the “thing.”  And I began experimenting with tools: credit cards, sponges, chop sticks and gravity.  I even got out my spray bottle of water.

A friend stopped in and spent some time studying this one at an earlier stage.  She was trying hard not to insult me and yet still ask me where it was going.  “I’m not sure,” I answered honestly.  “Does it go vertical?” she ventured.  Same answer.  “But?” I explained that right now I was playing with color and shape and motion...not very well I might add.  In all likelihood I would end up sketching a large figure on it and then painting out the background.

She looked distressed and said “Do you mean you would then cover up all your hard work?”

 

I paused.  Not once had what I was doing felt like work.  Never mind, “hard work.” More like  child’s play, experimental efforts and exploration. But not work.  Which is not to say that some days painting something (like a nose or a hand or a flower) is and feels like very hard work.  But not this.

Why are we afraid to experiment? Why must everything we do have an expected, acceptable outcome? Folks are horrified that I burn old paintings.  Is everything you do perfect? How boring!  How will you know if you like a new spice if you don’t cook with it? Fabulous or failure, to me it is worth the effort.

So I’m not sure where these will end up.  They could be my artistic break through and earn me thousands of dollars. Or they could be numbers 1 and 2 in next years burn.  Right now it does not matter.  Perfection is the enemy of a lot of things.

Let’s all vow for a bit more play and a little less work in 2020.

Cindy Michaud

www.cindymichaud.com

Questions: Art@cindymichaud.com