"Tombs" stands 5x5 feet on loose burlap and was mostly painted using a very uncontrolled pour technique on a wet surface. The watered down paint splashes, flows, and spreads across the loose, wrinkled canvas, providing a great deal of "natural improvisation". Also, as I stepped away for the paint to dry, the wet canvas further absorbed and leeched color to other parts of the surface, creating a even less controlled piece. The result is a very old, worn and stained look, almost like a cave painting with small dashes of vibrant color, where the paint had not quite dissolved in the pail.
I am very happy with the result. I think the method, which I had never tried before, lent itself to the forlorn, but very spiritual subject matter. The shapes seem to glow and pulse, while the small marks sit on a different level, floating above the ambiguous objects. Furthermore, the "abstract-symbolism" in the red and black parts (look closely...or look at the detail) bring in a delicate, fragile, and intimate aspect. The "tombs" are not just shallow graves, but a spiritual binding of the soul to nature.
My favorite aspect of the piece is that it is both subdued and energetic. In one regard, the light staining creates a wispy cloud effect; fleeting and ungrounded. Floating through the undefined space as the burlap guides it lazily. Then it is an energetic burst of life, circling, darting, and jumping across the canvas in small, bright patches of colors. It is a vision of a tomb as a spiritually active place; not an ending, not a beginning, but a transition from one plane to another....or at least that's what I see in it for now.
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