Reflection and Perception

Matrix, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches, © 2012 Diane McGregor

The last two paintings I've completed -- this one, Matrix, and the one from an earlier post, Sunyata (Emptiness) -- have been very difficult and labor-intensive projects. I've decided that from now on, the grid paintings need to stay in a small format -- I'm figuring no larger than 24 inches square. 

Although there is an encompassing shimmer that is lovely to behold in this larger work, I faced some tough challenges that I didn't expect when I decided to increase the scale of my grid paintings.  When painting the smaller format grids, the whole painting can easily be "unified," a quality I strive for so that no part of the composition weighs more heavily than another part.  Working large, this is an almost impossible feat, and requires hours and hours of just staring at the painting.  To find the right rhythm and balance is an arduous and not very pleasant task when confronted with a large arena like these four foot canvases.  The extreme sensitivity it takes to make the decisions is psychologically and visually exhausting. 

Part of the reason why I love painting grids is the freedom from decisions.  Because I am using a "ready-made" compositional device -- the grid -- the parameters and rules are set up before beginning the work.  My only decisions (after choosing the color palette) then become confined to each rectangle of the grid -- tiny decisions which eventually accumulate into one harmonious and subtly balanced image.

My plans for more ambitious work now involve using series of panels that would make up a larger whole, an idea that will make each smaller panel part of a larger, more dynamic image.  The arrangement of smaller, square canvases will also emphasize the conceptual use of the grid as a compositional schema.

 

ART Santa Fe

 Installation at ART Santa Fe 2012. From left: Dara Mark, Janice Wall, Diane McGregor, Paula Roland.

 Installation at ART Santa Fe 2012. From left: Diane McGregor, Paula Roland, Danielle Shelley, Shaun Gilmore.

Last month, the Lady Minimalists Tea Society artist collective exhibited at the international art fair, ART Santa Fe. This was the debut exhibition for our group. Six other women artists and I belong to the collective, and we meet once a month to talk about our work and discuss exhibition opportunities.  It's a great group of women, and we all respect and admire each others' work. Minimalism functions as a conceptual and aesthetic starting point for some in the group and as a point of reaction for others. Each artist has adapted the minimalist aesthetic differently, yet we retain a shared sense of pared down processes, materials and/or color.  Our booth at ART Santa Fe was very well received, and we got a lot of exposure and critical interest. I am very proud to show with this group of extraordinary women: Shaun Gilmore, Dara Mark, Paula Roland, Danielle Shelley, Signe Stuart, and Janice Wall. For more information about our group, please visit http://www.ladyminimalists.com.

Lacuna

Sunyata (Emptiness), oil on canvas, 48x48 inches, © 2012 Diane McGregor

Rain Light by W.S. Merwin

All day the stars watch from long ago

my mother said I am going now

when you are alone you will be all right

whether or not you know you will know

look at the old house in the dawn rain

all the flowers are forms of water

the sun reminds them through a white cloud

touches the patchwork spread on the hill

the washed colors of the afterlife

that lived there long before you were born

see how they wake without a question

even though the whole world is burning

My Mother passed away a few months ago. Since then there has been a huge void in my life. Mom had been ill, but not in any immediate danger, so her passing was sudden and shocking. This is my first experience of losing someone so close to me. The concepts of life, death, and afterlife are forward in my mind.

This painting helped me cope. The daily labor of completing each white rectangle, over and over, like a chant to the Infinite, gave me structure and purpose as I waded through the grief and loss. It's my most minimal piece yet.  The underpainting was lively violet, green, brown, and dark gray -- all that is left now is the white, with a hint of violet showing through in the lines that form the grid. Like snow, the purity of white symbolizes the intermediary between the spirit world and the human reality. White is silent and gentle, like snow falling; like arcane knowledge being transmitted through the ether, divine energy flows to us from a higher spiritual plane.

Red Bird

Red Bird, oil on canvas, 18 x 18 inches, © 2011 Diane McGregor

Red Bird

Red bird came all winter
firing up the landscape
as nothing else could.

Of course I love the sparrows,
those dun-colored darlings,
so hungry and so many.

I am a God-fearing feeder of birds.
I know He has many children,
not all of them bold in spirit.

Still, for whatever reason --
perhaps because the winter is so long
and the sky so black-blue,

or perhaps because the heart narrows
as often as it opens --
I am grateful

that red bird comes all winter
firing up the landscape
as nothing else can do.


~ Mary Oliver ~

Lynette Haggard's Artist Interview Series

I was recently featured on Lynette Haggard's Art Blog. Please enjoy reading this interview with me about my work and inspiration. I talk a lot about what led me to becoming a painter, and share some of my working methods and some of the inner processes that motivate me toward creating my work.

Thank you so much, Lynette!