Tuesday, November 15, 2016

1307 - Nativity 2 - V


I spent my time improving robes.  The basic shapes in the cloth are laid out, although I feel they are now too complex. "Painterly," my instructor suggests as the proper descriptive word, meaning he agrees that I've made my shapes too complex.  Orthodox iconography demands simplicity.  It's hard to pare down the human form into its essentials and still have a rich image.  I guess it's like trying to write those spare forms of poetry that use an economy of words. 

This was the last paint I laid down before going to work on my Necronomicon prop, theological bookends to my life if ever there were any.  I have no way of reconciling how my art works.  It just chunders out of me, and what you see is what you get.