A rose by any other name...

I'm told to write about my painting, what potential buyers need to know about who I am and why I do what I do and what the process is that resulted in this piece of art.  I've been accustomed to blathering on about this and that in my descriptions but not really doing the extremely difficult work of verbalizing what this particular piece of art is and why it matters to me, and hopefully, to you.  

"But," you protest, "painting is non-verbal!  Aren't you doing yourself a huge disservice by trying to describe, by the written word, what is expressed in a visual medium?" I would say, in a traditional form of painting, "absolutely!" But in this abstract form of expression, it is absolutely needed! Besides, even the most casual observer would benefit from a road map to a traditional piece of art.  How much more wonderful, then, to invite you into the process, to sit down with me, as it were, and to tell you what I think I know about my art?

Here exists a paradox: I don't want to give my painting a "name" that conjures up an image, as in, "what does this ink blot look like to you?" My painting is not 'meant' to look like anything.  Yet, the painting does need an introduction, a billboard or sign to slow the scrolling observer down long enough to engage in the hard work of 'reading' it. A good description should do just that, guide you into another perspective or point of view that you might have missed casually categorizing a painting as pretty or not, whether matching your decor, weird or wonderful, simple or complex. 

You'll need to refer to someone far more learned than I about decoding and understanding the symbols, compositions, and themes that have been used in art across time and culture. But, what I am hoping to do here is the mining of precious stones that I can share with you, my visitors, to enlarge your field of vision to include abstract art, to narrow your focus to the minute and lovely particulars that can only be seen under scrutiny, and to whet your appetite for more.  

Raw