Chaos. Chaos. Chaos.

My artistic goal has always been to create a little bit of chaos. A painting that was truly random but also aesthetically pleasing. It might be an oxymoron. True randomness isn’t pleasing to the human eye. I made hundreds of paintings and never got close to my goal.

I tried dripping paint or tilting the canvas but the process was always obvious in the result. Sure, the painting might have been a bit random but it was clear as day that someone had poured paint on the edge and titled it to the left.

I kept trying though. Sometimes, I'd see a glimpse along the way. For a second, something about the painting I was creating would be random and unexpected. I always ruined it by trying to do more. I hadn't learned when to stop.

One day, I gave up. I was so sick of the dissatisfaction and continous failure, I covered the painting with 5 pounds of screen printing ink and wiped away days of work. But then I kept experimenting. The screen printing ink stayed fluid for a long time and made the painting more workable. What resulted, was the first painting that ever satified me.

Chaos #1

At the time, I felt like I had achieved my goal. But as I continued to experiment, I became less satisfied with the patterns and lack of randomness in that first painting. I tried to replicate the steps that got me to Chaos #1 with little tweaks along the way. Every time was worse and worse. Trying to do anything specific made it impossible to be random. I knew what I intended and therefore the result was expected. I went back to creative destruction, throwing out everything I thought made Chaos #1 a success. Again, I felt like I succeeded. I had no process. There was nothing to replicate.

Chaos #2

I’m starting to see my goal met by reducing color to a minimum. I think it's easier to accomplish because most of the background can be ignored. It's just as complex as the rest of the painting but it's so subtle it doesn't draw your eye negatively.

Chaos #3

Chaos #4

Next, I intend to bring color back into the equation. Maybe just a little bit more to start.