Big Bridge PaintingsA series of abstract paintings on paper, approximately 2x3 meters, which developed over a period of time from the small bridge paintings which were more figurative in style. At one time the bridge paintings became angry and aggressive structures, painted with wide brushes on large sheets of industrial paper. I used plastic emulsion paint, the kind that is use painting walls. The paint was slashed and slathered on, literally hurled at the paper. The drips became an important structural part of the work. For the first time in my professional life as an artist, I was completely unconcerned with the lasting quality of the work that I was doing. I felt that I simply needed to do it. The physical quality of the work, the dance like movements, the working- out of a struggle, was more important than the results. The paintings seemed to paint themselves. Often they concentrated on the girders and the underpinnings. At times the work began with the structure of the bridge, which was subsequently overlaid with layers of paint which seemed to try to obliterate it. Sometimes the work began with amorphous areas of color on which the structure seeked to superimpose itself. The struggle between the structure and the chaotic or amorphous color became the subject of the painting. |
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