As I’ve been exploring new horizons of painting I feel so uncertain about my abstract painting. I’m pulled back to landscape again and again … back into the comfort zone!
I love abstract work where the paint is juicy, tactile, and energetic. I’m experimenting with layering, scraping, spreading, scratching and splashing to get new kinds of marks. What I create is intriguing, but I feel lost in the not-knowing. I want my paintings to mean something.
It’s only natural that something new will feel so…new! Am I avoiding the growing edge of the mystery?
On my first winter road trip last Sunday I listened to the podcast On Being, Episode 2/18/21 Rabbi Ariel Burger: Be a Blessing. I found inspiration and comfort from this remarkable artist/rabbi.
I think the greatest abstract paintings DO grapple with big human issues – Our conflicts with moral imaginings, and our efforts at moral transformation. Rabbi Berger talked about us being creative maladjusted. And therefore called to create the beauty, meaning, truth in our lives.
“Be aware of the living space between us, the time it takes for light to travel from your face to mine..”
Rabbi Berger
What do we create in the spaces between us? There’s a big question to paint on.
Art, Spirit, Nature 
Hi Patrise, What if abstract art is where the viewer notices what the message is from self to self? Wouldn’t that be meaning, indeed? When I looked at your painting, what I noticed right away was the emergence of hope in the blue from the weight and sameness and even dread of the white/cream strokes…the heaviness giving way to the new life to come. Even at first glance at your work, without any time for pondering, I was encouraged and saw a piece of myself and my longings. Thank you for that 🙂 A thawing, indeed!
Thank you SO MUCH Ann, your comment touches my heart. ❤