Gestural brush stokes in blues and grays dance across a warm ground with a sense of carefree exuberance. A closer examination reveals a deeper history. Layers of bright pinks, yellows, and greens are buried beneath that ground, along with delicate lace-like patterns that creep out around the edges like a weed growing out of the cracks between the squares of a sidewalk.

This painting was a struggle, and a breakthrough. I'd been feeling trapped by some of my hard won processes and techniques. Every painting was getting the lace pattern, and a grid pattern, and layers of poured paint, and all those things tended to work very nicely to make very good paintings that I am very happy with. But nobody likes feeling like they have to do things a certain way all the time. So, a challenge. Could I do a painting without those techniques?

I found myself drawn back into the power of the brush, and the power of the gestural brushstroke. In this specific painting, I found myself changing course about halfway through. I'd already done the lace pattern. I'd already done a couple layers of poured paint. Then I pushed it all back, covered it with brushstrokes. There is a torcheres middle layer in the painting, which becomes the warm ground the blue and grey brushstrokes work agains. That ground mediates the two paradigms and creates a new space for the brushstrokes to dance.