As I drove home, I rolled down the windows and turned off the radio.  I felt one of those Douglas Spaulding summer moments.  The breeze was cool and the air smelled like sweet grass.  It was one of those times that a person would like to capture in a bottle of Dandelion Wine to enjoy during the cold days of winter…sip, by precious sip.

I feel almost giddy when I leave the Gorilla House Art Battles because the people are so genuine and the act of making art in such an immediate way is so fulfilling.  It also helps to not have the attachments to the work, but to truly glean, from the process, everything that there is or will be.

Tonight there was an additional surprise because my artist-dancer-daughter was doing a performance piece along with three other dancers throughout the evening and throughout the gallery/studio space.  It was great to finally share the experience with one of my children.

The concepts for the challenge tonight were very symbolic and ‘conceptual’…there wasn’t much that one could take literally…so I decided to be very playful with this piece.  I began by adding gilded text as a ground, sharing a narrative about the creation of the Gorilla House and how it feels to confront a blank panel in such an immediate way each week.  Then we were given these three inspirations.

1. From a book of Mythology by Joseph Campbell, Sisyphus.  (He’s the dude he perpetually rolls a boulder up a mountain only to have the boulder roll back down…and so it continues.)

2. From the book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, the concept of formal composition and creating events in a visual space that create a child-like balance.  We were told to re-capture the whimsy of our childhood for this one.

3. The Sixth Sense

I definitely went for a very mathematical approach to this piece, while at the same time, using the media playfully.  This week I incorporated the use of chalk pastel, painted into with gloss medium.  I wanted to capture the prism…I also wanted to use triangles to represent compositional stability.  The circle also provided a strong compositional element.  Jan purchased my piece at the auction and I’d like to share my gratitude for that.  I hope she enjoys her new acquisition and look forward to a more accurate photograph capturing tonight’s event.

I think that tonight’s challenges were just that…several people struggled with this one.

The best style is the style you don’t notice. Somerset Maugham