O.C.D

As artists, much of the work that we create is in effect a mirror to the emotions that we are currently dealing with in our lives at any given time.

This particular series began with an initial piece that I created while at the Toni Onley Artist Project in Wells in 2009 with mentor artists Harold Klunder and John Hall.  At the time it was just an experimental exercise with form and color on a metal canvas, as my intention was to play with different techniques on a relatively new  (to me) substrate while in residence.

A couple years later, I felt myself drawn again to create more of these ‘linear’ type pieces which I have since termed O.C.D. (obsession with color and design).  That was my surface response to the aesthetics of this series that I was developing, however the underlying process was something quite different.  Throughout the 1-2 years that that I was creating these works, I found that what I was really doing was undergoing a sort of therapy in response to the stress I was under at the time. My life was falling apart a little due to situations and circumstances beyond my control, but I found that when I could retreat to my studio and create these very ordered and structural works, that it gave me a sense of control and simple satisfaction during a time of extreme chaos.

These pieces  are very process based, where I would start with only one color and one shape on a randomly sanded canvas and then build from there based on response and intuitive choices and continue to ‘construct’ until I was content with the finished work.

I eventually managed to call it quits to adding any more pieces to this series and am back to working on my usual ‘diverse’ explorations, but I know that I may yet again knock off another O.C.D. piece  if I feel the need to inject more Order, Calm and Direction into my life.