Creating for Creation Sake
The reclining woman is a popular subject amongst artist. Here are just a few of my favorite interpretation of reclining women.
Manet’s Olympia
Henry Moore’s sculptures.
And of course Picasso
I think that artist find the reclining woman subject intriguing because it is a position of power as well as vulnerability. It can also be one of peace. My painting below is obviously not reclined; but it did not stay that way. Here is the story.
This painting started with colors like yellow, pink, light blue, purple. It was colorful…a colorful mess. I wasn’t conscious when I was painting this…the first time. So, I started “fixing” it. I began using white paint to cover the “error” from the first try. The white paint spoke to me. The painting begin evolving into something different from what I had painted before. The arms and legs of this woman disappeared into the gray background and the red line contouring the woman was drawn to separate subject from the background. I hadn’t painted anything like this before. I hadn’t used colors like this before. She was spooky, weird and I had a hard time taking my eye off of her. Even when I look at her now, part of my eye hurts.
So some months past and I received an email from a fellow artist. She thought I should submit a couple of my paintings into a contest that connected artist with poets. Poets would take chosen paintings and develop a poem based on their interpretation of the painting. I didn’t want to do share my paintings. I didn’t yet consider myself an artist. But, for a friend, I submitted a few pieces and this one was chosen. A few weeks later, I had to drop my painting off at the gallery. That was a new experience to take a painting from my space to a gallery. I didn’t appreciate it for what it was at the time. Looking back now, it should have been then that I took hold of my identity as an artist.
That weekend was the presentation and opening of this poet/painting show. I went by myself. I wasn’t yet confident enough to share this moment with anyone. I don’t think I got excited about my painting being on a gallery wall until I walked into the building of the gallery. People were everywhere standing in front of paintings, discussing what they saw. It took a minute, but I found my painting and to my surprise, it was hung in the wrong orientation – It was horizontal and was given a title “Reclining Woman.” That was not my title of course. Before that, she was “Untitled 17.”
Changing the orientation changed the painting so much. She went form this scary, strange, armless woman to a strong, aware presence. I was amazed. Well at first I was angry that it was hung wrong, but my anger changed to WOW. Someone else interpreted my painting and changed the meaning for me and for all who viewed it. I do wonder if that person was a fan of the reclining woman subject and so saw that power in this painting.
This painting and experience did a couple of things. It showed me that the viewers interpretation of your art changes the meaning and perception of your art and this gave me more confidence to try different things with my art; color, design and orientation.