imperfection

Rome sidewalk



South Carolina sidewalk




Paestum museum

It has been weighing on me for a long time.  Why am I so captivated by the weathered exteriors of old walls, concrete walks, or abraded floors?  It doesn't matter if I am strolling up town or visiting another country, my eyes gravitate towards the effects of aging on manmade surfaces.  I am infatuated with the lines, forms and layered colors evident in places that have been worn down by motion or the weight of time. I am one of hundreds, if not thousands of artists who are attracted to similar themes. 

Rebecca Crowell is an internationally known artist whose work is a rich exploration of external deterioration.  On reading my recent post about my visit to Atlanta and my attraction to the faded floor in the gallery, she commented "My own work is inspired by such things as sidewalks, floors and old walls...sometimes I wonder, why make art at all when these things already exist in such perfection? (except I can't help myself!)"



Lost Wall #1 by Rebecca Crowell

This is a heady subject to explore.  If I'm tempted to answer Rebecca's rhetorical question I would suggest that it is through her eyes and her process that she gives the world a new appreciation for nuances of color and light that are inexpressable in any other way.

When I open my eyes to the beauty in what is cracking and peeling, I am also investigating my own life.  My art making allows me to internalize what my eyes see and my introspection explores, so that what remains on my finished painting is an expression of my Self, weathered by my experience.  Perhaps in enjoying and emulating the manifestations of decay and stress, I can allow myself to get beyond some unattainable perfection in my own life, or my own paintings. 


"sidelong memory," mixed media on canvas, Carol Beth Icard




"Incantation," oil on board, Carol Beth Icard




"oh happy day," oil on board, Carol Beth Icard

 
The transitory nature of our world includes not only weathered surfaces wrought by decades, but the kaleidoscope in nature that changes moment to moment.  When I look at the clouds in the sky, the pattern of birds on a wire, or a silhouette of bare branches against a sunset, it all goes into my thought process as a painter.  But what remains on surfaces, like the wonderfully layered walls in Pompeii, or the painted design on a tired floor, attracts me for its very perseverance. It gives me courage and is inspiration for my own endurance.