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The Power Of Paint
Particles of pigment immersed in viscous liquid, molecular brilliance ground in nature’s own fluid…oil paint…elements of the Dreamtime!
The simplicity of color pigments and linseed oil is elegant. Its malleability is boundless…its possibilities infinite…always tender, always graceful.
The oil slips, slides in and out and over the woven strands of sealed linen cloth.
No stress here, it dries in its own time; a radiant, multi-dimensional, non-linear time.
The suspended pigment is carried passively where the brush sweeps…yet it is the real power of the experience.
Within the grains of colors are the wedges to dislodge the stones from our inner walls.
Light skirting across the cadmiums, cobalts and ultramarines refracts to bathe the eye and sensate the brain.
Somewhere in our own mass of grey, the mind restlessly awaits the stimuli. And when it arrives…what a flurry!
All systems are go and the images and symbols and circles and squares and lines all start funneling down the arm.
All vying to be released.
And behind them is…the energy of the universe, that voltage of incalculable intensity and innumerable connections…the collective unconscious…the archetypes, and all the spirits that ever were and ever will be.
The energy flows through the heart/soul…particles of one’s uniqueness break away to slip into its stream.
The oil paint becomes an agent of change…first disturbing the establishment of stretched, primed linen canvas…then, layer by layer altering its own presence.
With each layer is a new moment to see what the self can unleash…not to ravage but to discover nature’s harmonies and play her universal truths.
This constantly alterable state of vulnerability is a metaphor for life. The experience hasn’t changed one synapse in 40,000 years. Science knows not its mystery.
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A Studio Visit
Placing one painting carefully on the easel while two others leaned against the easel legs, Bob Crimi grappled with words in trying to explain his “states of mind” during their creation. And thus with one painting after another being displayed and scrutinized and discussed, we were oblivious to a brilliant afternoon light that filled the studio and illuminated the paintings.
We devoured the work, groping for each work’s hidden meaning, its possible success or a reason for its missing the mark. It seemed crucial to both of us to unmask some secret enlightening generality that might be impacted within the work as a whole, a mirror of one artist’s ethos, or philosophy, or visione del mondo.
Sooner or later the artist must somehow come to terms with his work; he must sense its message, recognize its reflection of his hidden resources and persistent prejudices, he must repossess the work with all its successes and not a little of its failures.
No artist goes through this process unaided, alone. Detachment, so necessary to any sense of objectivity, is difficult and elusive. The more ardent and committed the artist, the more engulfed he becomes in his own warping convictions; the very passion that sustains him and enflames his work also discourages against cool appraisal. Many artists dote on their weakness and trash their strengths because of impatient, rash self-criticism.
And so carefully, cautiously, like explorers stepping on slippery terrain, keeping a precious balance, we sought for words and phrases that opened the painting’s meanings to us, that redirected our attention to each of the work’s virtues and liabilities …of moving beyond the obvious to what was implied or hidden.
No matter what Crimi’s inspirations and motifs are…the human figure, landscape, interior or still life… they find their transformation into paint through his special temperament. His broken, high key color, textured surface and combination of staccato strokes and sinuous lines help to exaggerate forms. Forms that seem to dismantle themselves in a vibration of life, irrepressibly ready to mutate into a pure whirlwind of sensuous energy.
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Simulacra
The images on this site do not affect one’s retinas as do the actual paintings. A camera lens can not discern the depths of layers and vibrancy of presence of oil paints.
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The paintings on this site can be viewed at:
8 Anthony Street Hillsdale, NY
518-325-4608
