Behind the Canvas: Brilliance

As a budding artist, this piece was a turning point and a revelation.

Pragmatic to a fault sometimes, I only made art when I had a blank wall to fill justifying the time and resources. There was a spot in my house that needed a piece of art, and since I was getting the spray paints out, I figured why not maximize the effort and get out a second blank canvas. It became the first piece of art I started without an intended home or "purpose."

With this 30 x 40 canvas, I started spraying without any expectation or intention. I don't remember even liking it when I finished spraying. The other canvas I had been envisioning and working on did not turn out at all. Instead of reworking it, I put my supplies and canvases away to pull out again when I had more time to give it.

Garage spray booth

After the spray but before the vision of what it could become

Testing out different scenes before realizing the power of its simplicity

Not long after, I left my life in Portland. I was separated in a new apartment in Seattle, facing the challenge and joy of starting a new life. What was next on my horizon...

Unpacking my things, I pulled out this unfinished canvas. Laying it out, I studied it and suddenly burst into tears as I really saw it for the first time. I saw where there should be a horizon line, I saw the watery foreground, and I felt the brilliance of "what's next?" on the horizon. With the collection of sample wall paints, I washed it with gray-blues and finished it on my kitchen table.

For a piece that had no intention when I started, it became the piece I hung above my new headboard as a symbol of my new beginning.

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Life Lessons:  

• Making art doesn't require a practical justification - you'll never know what you can make if you don't practice and try.

• The universe has a way and a plan

• Only when it's dark enough can you see the stars. Every dark night is followed by a new day.

  
  

Brilliance, 2023, 30" x 40" spray paint and acrylic paint on canvas