The brain, mind and flesh have very much been on my mind since Bob died and Mom's Alzheimer's has continued to progress. I don't know how Bob felt nor can I pretend to. More often than not, I'm sure what we call the spirit drives the flesh on, often past its ability.
Contemplating flesh and spirit, though, I am beginning to wonder if physical configuration (or disfiguration) of the brain account for the disorders and differences in us all, like disorders and differences of the face or body do?
Is spirit just flesh and vice versa?
A few Saturdays ago, I photographed a number of the Garry Oaks in Porter Park. The park is along my walk to work. After contemplating these and the slide photo Bob took back in the day, they appear like withering brains, their rough-hewn branches dividing into smaller and smaller parts like wasting nerve cells and synapses. There are a few that would work well as paintings.
The vision is to paint something transitory, like life and memory. Working with oil on canvas will not fit the bill. Nor will acrylic, which is even more permanent given the polymer's properties. Something like encaustic has intrigued me, and perhaps this is the opportunity to work with it. Never having used the medium may mean a sharp learning curve, but what the hey.
I can't just paint the oak, though. It's a nice image, but it's not working for me yet. So I've added a few layers to play with the contrast and colour.
I like the harsh almost black/white contrast that's working. I pull the red channel to create an alpha, and that works even better.
But the red channel itself, that's working. That's working great. This painting is red and black, like iron oxide red is the first colour that gets a name red.
