Copper Galore - With Patina!

This painting is from a series called 'Begin Again' and it represents one of my favorite types of paintings to create. It has TEXTURE, It is EARTHY and in this case METALLIC I once made a joke to someone looking at my art that my paintings look like something that was just dug up out of the ground. I could tell by the way they laughed suddenly that they were thinking the same thing.

This piece also has TEXT. I like to play with text in paintings, but avoid using English in America usually, because I feel once you put a word or phrase on a painting, you 'pigeon hole' it, by giving it a meaning of some kind, rather than leaving it open to interpretation for the viewer.
So, I use text few Americans or English speaking people would be able to interpret, such as Japanese.
Now, I don't know how to read Japanese (I won't pretend to, since I would be quickly busted by anyone who does, looking at my paintings) I just do a sort of alphabet practice - using an alphabet called Hiragana (the most recent and simple Japanese alphabet) What it represents to me is text as a beauty element - the use of brush strokes. Also, it speaks to the viewer on a 'symbolic' level. You know it means something, but you see it just as an embellishment.

Metallics are often used in these types of paintings to add an 'ancient' feel to it, as it is easy to make the metallic element look old, rusty or covered with patina.

Another favorite is to use text from a manuscript called the Voynich Manuscript, which has yet to be interpreted. I love the mystery of it. By including excerpts from it in my painting, it plants little 'surprises' for the viewer in the future, if the manuscript is ever interpreted :)