Good Art Makes You Think

I’m continuing work on the 150″ x 70″ canvas, arranging the masking blocks to grade the randomness left to right for the red layer, right to left for the blue layer and exposing the black and yellow layers completely randomly at a 1:3 ratio. I’m spattering very light layers of paint, using a technique I’ve been working on and used on the painting I posted on the “Spatter Obsession” entry. The droplets are coming down great: consistent, small, opaque.

But after a few layers of paint, it’s really hard to see what’s actually happening. Or IF anything’s actually happening. The droplets are so sparse, I can’t see any change to the canvas. Usually it’s a great moment when I lay down a cloud of color and watch it transform everything on the surface. But with so few droplets falling, nothing appears to happen. I’ve had to turn off the radio and actually listen for the droplets to make sure something is actually hitting the canvas.

Something is happening, though—the color is building up, and the very sparse, spread-out block pattern is beginning to show the influence of the red/blue bias I built into the math.

This got me thinking about how slowly and subtly God speaks stuff into being in our lives. An awareness dawns on me and I remember it’s been something I’ve been praying about for a few months. Or I realize I feel certain about something I had big doubts about a few years before. How did it happen? I didn’t see it in process for sure. Maybe instead of trying to see, I have to learn to listen to the colors falling.