This past week I had finished all my stretched canvases, and they were on the racks drying.  I have two huge rolls of unstretched canvas, so I took them out and rolled them out on the tables and cut them up into about 24 different pieces.

Then I did the process of manipulation of color and materials, melding them together, introducing them to each other...

The weather forecast predicted really bright, sunny morning and early afternoons, which to the Irish is around 4 o’clock in the afternoon, since it stays light till about 10 at night in the summertime...

For two days I was able to prepare them all for their planning and marry them together like an Oreo cookie.  Then on the second day I pulled them out and laid them all over the cliff and weighed down with all these big stones from the property, because I knew the gales were coming and the storms.  And they really came.

I had taken refuge in the house, drinking tea and watching the gales and the rain come straight by the window.  After 5 or 6 hours I went out and looked at the canvases, and they all seemed to be taking a great bath.

The wind and rain and nearly hurricane-force winds and little tornados of wind hitting the building and creating whirlpools, were all having their way with the canvases on the ground.  They were pooling, and all kinds of great things were happening.

As soon as it gets bright enough today and I get myself stirred up to walk among them, I will be eager to see how they weathered the storm, although I know that the storm will give them new life; it will not detract from their wellness.

The other thing in this preparation that I did, a sweep the house concept, looking at every nook and cranny of all my buildings of paint that may have been there for 10 years, with a crust of linseed oil on top, but digging that out into clumps, throwing it onto the canvas...

We had the greatest array of colors that you’d ever want to encounter, some of which had been gestating for 3, 5, 7, 15, 18 years.  I characterize that old paint as fertilizer.  It might be shit, but if it’s put in the right conditions, it gives great power to its surroundings.  Nothing is worthless; everything has its own power and dignity, even though you might not know it at the time.

So then I put solvent on them to help them in their migration and then encased it in these different concretes, and let the wind and rain see what they can do to help it along or blast it away.  It’s like having a voyage but you don’t really have to go anywhere!

Matt