MURAL PAINTING DIARY. PART TWO

Strong and Silent Mural. 10x20 ft. Acrylic and latex on masonry. 2020
Location: SE Alder St between 14th and 15th Avenues, Portland, OR

Say hi to the babushkas, they are finished and here to stay on this Portland wall for the next three years!

Many many thanks to everyone who's supported this project!

It's been an amazing experience. In a way I can't believe I've never worked this large before. It feels so normal and natural now. And all I can think of is where to find another wall to paint ?

I had to take a break for a week because of the rain. A little drizzle isn't a problem for painting a mural, but the downpours we've been having are problematic for applying water soluable paint to an outside wall.

Thoughts and reflections

I am learning yet again that I am an alla prima painter. Not that all my paintings are done in one session, but my approach to making a painting is to move quickly, making changes in response to what is happening on the surface. Plein air painting is like that as well: gotta chase the light while it lasts, make a gesture in one breath.

I am glad that I created a smaller painting first before approaching my first mural, but for my next one I definitely plan on using my normal studio approach of just winging it. The spontaneity and discovery are too important. Also this larger scale and the public nature of the work demands attention also demands much more thorough consideration.

My image selection is the same as my painting process: intuitive and reactive. I don’t consciously consider too much, I intuitively respond to an image that I find compelling. But making something this large and this permanently installed in a public place makes me feel like I need to take a step back and really consider.

I’ve heard it time and time again that most of contemporary figurative painting is about identity politics. I’ve been toeing that line, dancing around it for a while now. But something about putting my work in a public space pushes me to fully admit that it applies to me. I am working with heritage, cultural inheritance, norms and customs passed through socialization and unconscious absorption from the environment. Painting this mural, and especially stepping back and looking at it now that it’s done, brings into focus the need to clarify and put more words to anchor the images I make.

I paint archetypes, I create my own pantheon. But it’s not a particularly diverse one. Perhaps I am a worshiper of a chthonic matriarchal cult of the crone. 

But then I am not a worshiper either. I bring forth to examine and clarify as much as to pay respects and acknowledge. 

More of an archivist really, whose work is both to preserve and critically examine.

Prints are on their way

For those of you who have selected mural design prints as perks:

I am working with a local fine art printer on the print proofs right now. As soon as I sign off on the proofs, I'll have a better idea about the delivery timeline. 

And for those of you who haven't grabbed one yet, or want another one, please claim them soon. I don't want you to miss out on having your own hand signed and numbered limited edition prints just because the campaign is over.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Like the Masters

I am a contemporary painter, but I am deeply influenced by the traditions of European and Russian art.  For better or worse, classical painting techniques are rarely taught in American art schools. So I found a book that promised to reveal the secrets of the Masters in step by step instructions.  The tutorial images look more like 80s soft core porn: unrealistically round perky breasts and half open puffy lips of the models are lovingly emphasized by dramatic chiaroscuro.  But I would not be deterred and followed the prescribed steps and painted my soviet citizens instead.

There is a craft aspect of this method that is appealing and soothing. There is a relaxing quality in having set parameters and knowing what the next step is. The palette is extremely simple and  I feel like I can really focus on the subtleties of light and shadow. This is something that was always challenging and overwhelming in my usual approach where I attack the canvas and attempt to solve for all the unknowns simultaneously.  The traditional approach to oil painting does feel more like craft, more like following in the footsteps of the other master craftsmen that have perfected a method. And it's very different from my past painting experiences in which come up with the method as I go.
 

While "learning from the Masters" I decided to really focus on my subjects, to isolate them from their environment, to elevate the beer drinking factory worker and the bored toilet plunger sales girl using the classical portrait techniques.  This way I can focus on finely rendering facial features and give special attention to the way the clothing drapes the body. I want to paint the worker's smock and the shop girl's bulky vest like the luxurious finery of the stately nobles of the past who were the predominant subjects of such portraiture. I want to do this because I know so intimately how that drab blue-gray worker's smock drapes and folds, how hateful those standard issue uniforms were. I had one too.