A Year of Making Art: Day 26

May 15, 2007  Day 26

When I was at Cooper Union School of Art & Architecture in the early 60s, I made an optical art (op-art) painting in design class.  Instead of my usual expressionist style of working, I painstakingly filled in tiny spaces with carefully mixed colors in order to create the visual effects of a floating sphere.  This painting was chosen for the end-of-year show, and I liked it enough to hang it later on the ceiling of my "pad," which I had painted black.  I think I left it there when I moved.

The drawing I did this morning was inspired by that piece.  It's interesting how things that happen to us in our youth remain to influence us the rest of our lives.

  Drawing #25, 14" x 11"

Next, I tackled canvas #7, which would take a lot, I knew, to bring together into a cohesive whole.  This, too, required the painstaking filling in of shapes formed by lines I'd made earlier.  I started with the pale yellow-greens I'd used in the Improv paintings, then added washes of cadmium yellow, rose red, and a deeper green.  The rose red began to bring it together, and the dark green did the final trick.

   Canvas #7, now called "Birdsong"

(Note:  There is a gap between the dates I'm writing and posting because I had to give myself time to get ahead in case we travel and I'm not able to post.)