Dot Painting #1

14" x 13", oil on canvas

Light moves, color moves, dots swirl like blowing leaves and dust. Dot Painting #1 pulses, extends itself forward and back just as it is stabilized by left and right verticals and a horizontal mid-line. Transitions between earth tones

are close, the off-white canvas is bare, harmonizing with the lighter colors. The lower left corner is held by a pink dot while diagonally opposed by an area of red.

Painter Lois Dodd in a YouTube video says she sees things other people may not see just as musicians probably hear things she doesn't. I think this painting is an example of the unique way I see and is stronger for it. It is this same quality that may make it esoteric. I stand by what I make no matter the degree of accessibility. People like different things. My job is not to guess what they like, be part of a think tank, but to make good art whether it is liked or not. That is the luxury a fine artist has over a commercial artist. The same quality interferes with cash flow, so perhaps it is the only luxury. It is sometimes discouraging and many artists quit from the compounded factors of money and lack of appreciation of their work. I don't regret my choice. I can't rest without making the images. Here is my personal declaration, a reminder of what I am doing. It's my raison d'etre and I take it with me into 2011. It was done on the iPad. I give permission to any artist to print it out for themselves (not to reproduce). Happy New Year!