once in awhile, i enjoy painting very loosely with collage bits. this one is called "blue". (to cousin fred: this is one that has been shipped to in new york about to be "handled" by the pros at amsterdam whitney).
this painting is the result of instant decisions and selections and a little bit of "color" education.
this is how i work:
i collect images and magazines and junk off the ground, things people throw away, etc. and amass a huge nest of favorites. then i sit in the middle of it all and put a color down on the canvas without much thought. right after this point, however, i start to make educated color selections. i spend time looking through my paints and find colors that i think work well together. i learned a long time ago, that if i simply "play" at this step, i usually end up in the mud. muddy colors, not delightful ones. the colors need to be thought out. if i feel stuck, as in a writers block, about which colors to work with, i have a few places that i go to unstick. one of my favorite places is the paint store. i collect color swatches. i set them out on my work table and think. my decision is not just a decision as to what colors look well together or what colors are compatible, but also how much of one color should i use to make another color dance. once i feel i have a good color combination, or one that suits me...then i begin to act spontaneously scrambling through my nest, testing one image verses another. i choose the collage-y bits by color, texture and finally for the story it tells.
one of my favorite themes is to show how things that seemingly don't look related can be related. i have a huge series of this theme on my website...www.lisabebiart.com in the smaller works section. if you look, you will see, for example, that the letter "y" reminds me of an artichoke.
anyway, this painting, "blue", shows a birdcage type shape in black paint. inside the birdcage is a delicate red bird shape. atop the birdcage is a bird-shaped blob (in black). the black blob bird is "blue" over his lover red bird who is stuck in the cage. i found the image of the 2 kids in the right top corner of the painting. they are sitting close together, like lovers, each wearing fasten-on wings. to me they all relate.
i hope you enjoy this piece.
by the way, many people are emailing me about this blog, asking me questions, making comments....... but afraid, for some reason, to leave a comment here....i hope that you will un-shy yourselves and leave a comment or two, so that i can answer back. i hate seeing a big fat 0 for comments.
3 comments:
I have that '0' comments too! Do I get extra points for commenting on your blog? when ya gonna comment on mine?
BTW, I really enjoy the description of how you work, and the paint chips. LOVE the dog stories!and the painting of the dog.
Dear Lisa, Thank you for "blue" - -of course I love it but I think what makes all of your work special is knowing how much fun and thought and fun and total enjoyment you get from each piece. When I see one of the works that really works for me I know how much you put into it and how much you're also getting out of it and all of that makes it really special. Hey, got an idea if you're not getting as many comments on the blog as you expected - - I'll register under a bunch of different names and fake a bidding war like different people are bidding into the 20s or 30s of thousands of dollars. Boy, it would sure give the site some buzz and get people talking but I guess now that I've unleashed the idea everyone would catch on so I guess the idea can be trashed, right? Nevertheless, I'll offer $18,000.00 for the painting of the two small boys. Hope you enjoyed Evan Almighty this past weekend. We went to Cirque du Soleil's musical Delirium and loved it. We've gone to many of the Cirque performance over the years and love the tremendous creativity and talent but this was their 1st musical that I recall and it was very nicely done - - the performers are always amazing but most amazing of all is seeing the tremendous effort of all the different disciplines come together in a very complimentary way, not too unlike painting right? I'd pay Cirque in heartbeat to be able to work for them in any task that I could contribute or add value just to be part of it. I guess I'm gonna find out if there's a space limit on comments so maybe I better close for now. Pls keep the New York paintings coming - - I'm still in suspense and enjoying every minute. lol, f
fred....your too funny....you make me laugh everytime. hahahahahaha. different names for you would create a buzz - a buzz of you and i only. but hey i like your company.
i didn't think much of evan almighty...but i would LOVE to see cirque de soleil's musical - i saw one of their shows once and fell in love with it. amazing.
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