The above photo is a pretty good representation of the sort of imagery that motivated me.
I don't know how many of us can recall unraveling a ball of yarn. I certainly do. Helping my mom when I was much younger as she knitted cardigans for my brothers and I. For that matter, how about unraveling fishing lines or extension cords. The task seemed daunting to begin with, but as we grabbed a hold of some loose strands we began to make heads and tails out of them. All the time we were wondering if we picked the right strands to follow.
I believe it was Voltaire who said " uncertainty is uncomfortable, but certainty is absurd". It is the lure of success that keeps our forward motion. I find it exhilarating to tackle something with just a tad of difficulty, such that I won't be demoralized, yet the promise of success is so rewarding.
Obviously in the case of painting a jumbled bunch of roots, failure is inconsequential, just time lost and energy wasted.
The overriding issue in this particular attempt was accountability. How do I account for these roots; their origins and their destinations.
At first I was obsessed by being able to trace each root and its branches. It took me a while to realize that perhaps I was more worried about the inability of the viewers to trace the roots. Did I give off the impression that I was just wantonly throwing a bunch of lines together and called them roots? The truth of the matter was, many had questioned me.
Once I realized my own insecurity, I thought of our circulatory system. We can see the major arteries and veins, but not the microscopic capillaries. Yet each cell in our body depends on these vessels to deliver oxygen and nutrients and carry away waste. Thus if my roots do not seem to be connected, they actually are. Accurate mapping is not a necessity.
Once I understood this concept, I was at peace with myself and thought of ways to narrate my roots better.
Some of them could be below surface and re-emerge someplace else. This would totally take care of the accountability issue.
So I started to paint dirt and gravel, suggesting a ground.
Since I had painted everything so dark, I had to use white color to introduce the granules of gravel.
I actually used latex paint, as an experiment. I thought the latex paint would give me thickness and texture.
Then I painted in the left margins of these white specks with ink, to give the illusion of light coming from the right.
I did that to accentuate the three dimensional effect and to give more realism to the gravel and sand granules.
I picked out a few main roots and applied stronger shadows to them, at the same time making the left half of the painting darker, adding a little drama to the work,
I think this is a good place to stop, allowing myself time to re-evaluate.
I shall call this painting Finding My Roots.
Literally and figuratively.
We think we know where we came from; our heritage, lineage, pedigree.
But do we?
We are all interconnected.
