Code Yellow

Finally, I painted a mainly yellow canvas. It also proved to be a difficult color. Yellow was such a bright color, I had trouble placing other colors on top of it. Whereas I tried to use the same colors among all the paintings, I was forced to alter some colors because of the color shift among adjacent colors.

 The pattern goes back to a "S" pattern used on my family's towels. I mimicked its double spiral. As for whether people saw an "S" in the painting was not important to me.

 The pastels in this painting made it more childlike, playful and happy. The personality of this piece just sort of happened. It wasn't something I planned.

acrylic on canvas, 22" x 28"

Code Green

Having completed four paintings, I set about creating four more. My goal was to have eight paintings that would hang in an alternative space corridor on Poydras Street in downtown New Orleans. An art guild I belonged to had been invited to hang art there on a rotating basis.

 In keeping with basic colors from the color wheel, I chose to make the next canvas predominantly green. As I continued my process, I found green to be a very difficult color. It was so dark. So, I contrasted green with colors from complementary and lighter colors.

acrylic on canvas, 22" x 28"

Code Orange

This was the first canvas when I began my process. It ended up being the last, of the four, when I finished. Working on the four canvases simultaneously wore me out. Along the way I changed my mind many times. The layers of paint bear that out.

acrylic on canvas, 22" x 28"

Code Red

When I worked on my red painting, the dot pattern clicked in a special way. It is my favorite one of these four paintings. This painting won a second place in an art show competition and the title of "Artist of the Month" in a peer voting art competition.

 "Code Red" marked a breakthrough for me. The process was a new way of painting for me. I was tired my surreal and expressionist methods of painting in acrylics. It was important for me to explore other ways of using the medium.

acrylic on canvas, 22" x 28"

Code Blue

Eventually, I was painting four of these 22" x 28" canvases simultaneously. This painting is very similar to "Code Purple" in pattern and dot shapes. I repeated the columned pattern on the sides.

 When I began to think about a name for these paintings, I thought of "Code Blue." Around this time a color code had been introduced as a warning system for level of "terrorist threat." Also, around this time my mother, who had undergone treatments for breast cancer, ended up in the hospital. Anyway, the two concerns helped me name my four paintings.

 In choosing my colors I made a point of including colors from the other paintings in addition to the predominant color. Many people have commented on these works looking like quilts. In fact some quilters have come up to me to talk about these paintings.

acrylic on canvas, 22" x 28"

Code Purple

The answer came to me as I was pondering what to do. I needed to soften my image. That's when I decided to use dots.

At first I wanted the dots to be expressive. I didn't want to have them controlled. However, I was not as pleased with the result. But I liked what was happening better with dots than without them.

To me this pattern reminded me of light bouncing off a mirror ball all over a room. The pattern was hemmed in by one column on the right and another on the left. I did have trouble with my hand resting on wet dots and smearing the paint.

acrylic on canvas, 22" x 28"

Process

In the beginning of 2002, I gridded off four 22" x 28" canvases. One I painted primarily orange, another purple, another blue and finally one red. Using acrylic paint I began by making all my triangles flat. I made sure that some of the colors appeared on every one of the canvases plus I added a few more. But I was visually bored.

So I experimented with depicting light shining through the triangles. That still didn't satisfy me. Eventually I painted over the triangles. At this point I was aggravated. The harsh triangles bugged me.

Unfortunately I didn't take photos along the way. So I have no documentation of what went on I as I painted each layer of paint. It wasn't until the next phase that I had an
"aha" moment.

Watercolor Grid

Purple was another color in the Uniball set, besides orange. This was a painting study on a letter size piece of paper, 8.5" x 11". Blue and pink were the two remaining colors in the set. I ended up using all four colors eventually, but that came later in my process.

watercolor on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Color Grid

After drawing patterns inside the triangles of several grids, I experimented with
color inside a grid, using color pencils. I drew the sketch below in a small sketchbook
I had. Although I primarily used it as a scrapbook, I sometimes used it for playing with
art media.

 Beginning in 2002, I took a liking to the color orange. A film poster and an art ed convention logo both used oranges in pairs in their designs: one like glasses over eyes and the other as bicycle wheels. The coincidence appealed to me at the time. Also, Uniball came out with a pen set including an orange pen. Now and then I have color obsessions. That's how this sketch began. I played with other colors while deciding what I might want to do for a finished piece.

color pencil on paper, 5.5" x 8.5"

Third Ink Grid

Here is the third ink grid I drew.

ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Second Ink Grid

Here is a second ink grid I drew.

ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"

How My Current Art Began

In the fall of 2001 I was a talent visual art teacher responsible for a caseload of elementary talent art students at four schools. I was filling in for a talent art teacher who was on sabbatical. When I tried to explain the art term “value” to my students all I saw were blank confused looks.

So I came up with a grid of triangles. I handed each of them a grid to draw patterns in each triangle – lines and dots. Before having them start, I held up a sample grid I had drawn. When they finished drawing patterns, I held up each page so they could view the results from a distance.

And what does this have to do with my dot art? Well, this is where my current art began. I created this patterned grid. After that I played with color in a similar grid. These were rough ideas leading up to my dot paintings. Below is the first of three ink drawings I made.

ink on paper, 8.5" x 11"

Stop/Go

"Stop/Go" was inspired by the movie "The Mexican" from 2001. Brad Pitt's character is
at a stop light which becomes a pivotal moment for him. It captured my indecision
at the time.

In this piece I wanted to play with variations of the complementary colors "red" and "green". This piece reflects my fascination with Victor Vasareley artwork. However, in rendering the drawing I wanted to keep it more expressive and soft edged.

colored pencil on paper, 15.25" x 24"

Three Years Later

It would be three more years before I'd come back to dots in my artwork. And even then, I failed to get a picture of the piece before it sold. It was a long narrow horizontal color pencil drawing. The background was a transition of color behind scattered dots. I barely had a chance to exhibit the piece before it suddenly sold at a show.