Ceremonial Grounds

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Over the last 25 years I have worked large scale paintings using oil paints, tar, tea bags, acrylic paints, tile grout, rust solutions, and sumi ink.  I look to nature and see how the stains, erosion, and weather mark the time in a endless variety of texture and color. Seven years ago I started using plaster because I liked the way the material took on stains, burnished, and illuminated in a natural way.  Grounding ceremony was a process of working layers of failure into layers of completion. Usually I start with a rougher plaster substrate and pull the Venetian plaster over the top. On this piece I chose to use the Venetian plaster straight on panels and I ran into some problems where areas chipped and fell off. By resealing those areas and pulling more plaster over the top subdued depressions left a new kind of relieved form that really activated the surface in a new way. I thought about these layers of failures in a different way- like a grounding back to basic steps and the ceremony of completing a new process and new journey.

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