#13: The Battle Moves Toward Resolution

"The Daily Menu"

"The Daily Menu" (detail

"Girls at the Mall"

"Girls at the Mall" (detail)

"Neighborhood Scene"

"Neighborhood Scene" (detail)

"Man and his Machine"

You have, right in front of you, the partial resolution of a conflict - a conflict waged with dangerous weapons, a paint brush and a palette knife.

You've been hearing a lot about how Iwant to achieve the freedom I feel with a palette knife when I paint with brushes. I don't know, maybe it's just not interesting to you. Just give me the pictures, I don't care how you get there, I could almost hear someone say. But, if you want to know what I go through, and you're reading this blog, then you have to give me some liberty and suffer a little.

After painting "Blue Bicycle," which I showed you in my last blog, I felt I could do almost anything with a palette knife. The paintings would just roll out, I thought. I was so overconfident, I thought I found the key, and at least my knife work would come almost automatically. Well, nothing is automatic, as I found out. "Neighborhood Scene" did happen fast, but I believe that was because I felt an emotional tie for this friendly corner near my home. And "Girls at the Mall" was a way to become just a little abstract with the young women from another painting, "Grand Opening," which was painted with brushes and which I showed you in my last blog. I just took those four women and imagined a scene for them and then painted them with a knife. It was a way to free myself up. And since I was really rolling, I did "Man and his Machine," but to be quite honest with you, I don't think this painting is as complete or has the emotional content of "Neighborhood Scene." The reason, I don't know. Maybe it was rush. Or maybe I didn't think it through before taking palette knife in hand.

Then I went through this internal monologue. I asked myself the same question that had been troubling me for a while: How do I achieve the same freedom with a brush that I feel with a palette knife? Same question, but different answer: It is through visualization. You have to visualize, I told myself, just how the brush painting would look - every brush stroke, every color, every space.

I really liked the scene and the idea behind "The Daily Menu." I chatted with the waitress from the restaurant "Le Cochon," in Philadelphia. She is very nice, and also a photographer and artist . I felt maybe fortune was smiling on me, because I happened along just at the moment she was writing out the menu for the evening on the sunny late afternoon in this nice corner of the city.

Ladies and gentlemen, I like the painting. I did move toward more freedom and expression. Not all the way, but a bit of the way. realistically, very few things happen in sudden changes, but rather in gradual evolution. And for me and my painting, maybe that is better.

What do you think?

Thanks for listening.

William Kosman