I have a rather old painting I did back in 1988 entitled, “The Pains of Life”, from which the central figure comes from. This piece, so far part of a series, explores the ‘technical’ challenges of introducing liquid rubber (#flexseal) to laser toner, which is another medium I love to use.
As for meaning, all I can tell you is that as of this writing, our world is facing a pandemic, the likes of which I have only read about in history books. And although we are as informed as we can possibly be, with news reports coming to us via left and right… I can honestly say that what is happening on earth is emotionally overwhelming.
Because painting with liquid rubber is not easy, the frenetic pace at which I do it is in direct opposition to the time it takes to draw a figure on my computer, pick a paper and get my printer to print it. And this pace is the ebb and flow of how I am processing this crisis at the moment.
The drawing part takes time, but once I have something pulled from my subconscious, the end result with the Flexseal becomes a physical exercise. The medium was not originally designed for painting, and it cannot be diluted (that I know of as yet), and the drying time is slow, although the workability time is short.
It’s unpredictable, and thus, very suited for the type of monochromatic images I wanted to make. I guess that’s all I can say for now.
