Salute
Handmade stretched canvas
4’x4’ approximately
I painted this in the spring of 2010. At first, I struggled with the piece and wiped it down to a simple wash before going to bed, thinking I had abandoned it. The next morning, I woke late and found that I had left three quarts of paint uncovered. In the early sunlight, a latex skin had formed on the surface. Worried I had ruined the paint, I pushed my hand through the skin and, to my surprise, found wet, usable color beneath. Using my hands, I applied the skin and paint to the canvas—first the yellow, then the red, and finally the blue.
The etched figure of the man, with his outstretched arm, was created using a half-burnt charcoal briquette. This painting is significant to me because it was the first to reveal the potential of using paint and charcoal, even in their ‘expired’ forms. The dust of a broken charcoal stick or paint left out and dried, then revitalized, holds new possibilities for expression.