The Waking Vision

The cat decided to take a nap on my lap this evening.  I love it when she does; I find her very comforting.  After a while, however much I enjoy her warm presence, my legs begin to ache from impaired blood flow and I must, reluctantly move.  She invariably leaves me and I usually, as I did  tonight, curl up in a ball and sleep.

This evening, I briefly napped, awoke with an idea in my head and ran upstairs to make a drawing, with which I am pleased.  From there I went to work on an idea about a painting, on which I have been working on for ten years.  It is a part of a series of works, both 2-d and 3-d referring to The Crown of Thorns from the New Testament of the Bible, with which Jesus was crowned as a mocking tribute to his authority.  I am fascinated by the metaphor.

This particular painting is a collage of my ripped up charcoal drawings, on a panel,.  I had done one before measuring 3 x 3 feet, on a red background.  I like it very much.  This one is 4 x 4 feet on a pale blue background, like a sky.  It was too simple, yet, I could never quite find a way to complicate it just right.  I tried lots of things and pulled them off the surface. When I say I have been working for ten years it was, build up and tear down for several of them. Finally I got smart, lazy or frustrated and worked in my head.  The image has been thumping around in my head, with its' four sharp corners for a long time.
 
In the last three weeks, I conceived of an idea, brought to me by my storage war.  I do not have room to store a  4 x 4 foot painting and it is a pain in the neck to move.....that is what saws are for.

Tonight I placed the image in "Paint" and cut it up.  I love it!  4 x 4 cut into 4.

In my studio that I had this past fall, I had a cot.  When I grew tired, every day, I would lie down and nap for as little as 5 or 10 minutes.  When I woke, my eyes were new, my head was clear and ideas flowed again;  same as tonight.  Perhaps there is something about waking up from the horizontal to see the vertical image that allows me to just get it.  Live with the work; the waking vision is so different from the staring one.

The only problem I have now is that I do not want to sleep, I am so excited.  I hope the lumber yard will cut this thing for me.

Oh boy Oh boy oh boy!