cmsa; my painting got to go to TRAC, she's hanging somewhere there; "Beware the Crone's Embrace" cynda valle
This post inspired by the comment of one TRAC attendee;
"so maybe your work is good illustration, or design, but how is it reaching for other qualities (especially in the historical model of 'painting')? (Sorry to be such a fuss, but maybe you can explain?)"
In an attempt to answer this question, which annoyed the heck out of me:
dear carol, the paintng is about a race ( a granny race) i heard about in england , in a small village; once a year the strongest young men each carry an old woman piggy back, and they race through town, the crone shouts "encouragement" while the villagers cheer them on. I ussed myself as the model for the crone, and i now know the crone dominates the runner, the tireder the runner gets the lower he'll carry the crone on his back and the more her hands pull at his neck. Crones are usually the least empowered physically, so it was great for me to see that reversed from this position. i couldn't resist adding a susrreal twist (in my granny race she's riding the young man through the night sky of a big city)..So i would not expect too many people to have heard of the granny race specifically, but i do hope that the sense of the riders empowerment over the young man comes across, and maybe brings light to the subject of how older women seem to be invisible in our society
regarding the formal painting stuff; From an art historical pov i work with traditional underpainting with glazes in oil , as will as more "wet into wet " oil techniques that leave a visible brush stroke (hair, fur, and crones hands) ... i generally like skies, lit areas and light sources to be glazed, i use the more brushy wet into wet in areas of texture. I'm also fond of a process i think i first saw in rembrandt's self portraits; using thin glazes in areas of shadow and bright, and thicker more opaque paint applied wet into wet in the lightest areas..
