Circles and Recycling

Circles of our life
of the day
other's circles intersecting with ours
circles of our painting life.

Our painting life exposes the circles of our life and reveals the fact that nothing is "really" new,
only recycled.

Our daily searches to paint the new and unique often results in older,  buried images simply
plowed up and brought to the surface again.

We are excited as we sit at our painting station to begin a new body of work.

"This is going to be my best work ever",  "I'm going to win a prize this time",
"I have some really good ideas for this series",  we muse.

So we begin,  we sketch,  we doodle,  and paint a few small things that satisfy us.

Something interrupts us,  and begin looking through our old stuff,  discarded paintings,  all buried in a pile in the corner.

What's this?  A forgotten painting shows itself.

We look at it amazed.  This is what I am doing today we realize!
Same subject, same basic idea.  Only put away,  and forgotten and just now resurfacing.

We realize that instead of creating a brand new idea we are simply reworking an old one!

It seems we develop a circle of painting ideas that revolve in our minds.
We revisit each periodically unknowingly in our consciousness.

These are our selves made visible in symbolic images.

Just which self will be revealed in our painting today?

Painting; Concepts and Ideas

A concept is like an "idea".
We spin these ideas in our daydreams and dreams.
Our thoughts center on a strongly felt idea and we mentally search for objects, lines and shapes
to express them.

These ideas propel the painting with a vibrancy and power.  Often it is something you want to communicate  but you can't do it just by painting a landscape, a figure or a still life.

In order to paint about these ideas and concepts one must create metaphors and symbols which represent them.
Some ideas are well expressed in abstractions using only colors, shapes, lines and values.

For instance, sadness and grief can be expressed by downward lines and sober colors.
Joy and happy by upward shapes and bright colors.

The shapes, colors and lines carry a meaning beyond them selves
and become the language of the artist.

One can search for actual forms to express ideas.

Some of my metaphors and symbols:

Waterfalls as a symbol of immersing, refreshing humanity.
Flowing water as spiritual cleansing.

Dancing symbolizing life and living.
Dresses as God's spirit covering our body

Cactus, symbol of a strong, stable and resilient person.
Ecosystems of botany and bilogy; structure of life forms.

Figures in waterfalls, the sea, trees; the interdependence of life.
Rainbows as good overpowering evil.

All the symbols and metaphors help to express the inexpressible and bring meaning one's creations.

Huge new and exciting vistas open anew to a painter who ventures into the realm of ideas!