This painting happened at the end of a work session on a summer day, when sweatiness, general mess and frustration let mind barriers fall. I was on a pink jag, thinking about Wendy Davis’ filibuster Mizunos and the image of Malala Yousafzai making her speech at the UN, clothed in Benazir Bhutto’s sari.”

Marianne Gagnier, “Spidery Walk.” 2013. Acrylic on canvas. 38 x 42 inches.
© Marianne Gagnier. Image courtesy of the artist.

This painting happened at the end of a work session on a summer day, when sweatiness, general mess and frustration let mind barriers fall.1 I was on a pink jag, thinking about Wendy Davis’ filibuster Mizunos and the image of Malala Yousafzai making her speech at the UN, clothed in Benazir Bhutto’s sari. Musing if color could be lyrical, political and emotionally specific all at the same didn’t make those particular inspirations into paintings. But this one did arrive, embodying an older obsession with red with blue.

Letting go can’t be willed. As painters know, it can happen unbidden at the beginnings or middles of workdays–as well as at ends. I am conscious of following in the footsteps of giants, artists who sought the “no-mind,” when subconscious has a chance to enter the process and let the painting gain autonomy.

I think of color first, but I’m equally concerned with painted space that physically references a larger world. There is a lovely essay in the current issue of Brooklyn Rail by Jenny Jasky in which she posits that our growing knowledge of the vastness of the universe has altered our perception of being “privileged meaning-maker[s],” reliant on words. I am in sync with her reference to art that enacts and transforms forces.2

Letting go can’t be willed. As painters know, it can happen unbidden at the beginnings or middles of workdays–as well as at ends. I am conscious of following in the footsteps of giants, artists who sought the “no-mind,” when subconscious has a chance to enter the process and let the painting gain autonomy. I am conscious of millennia of women who expressed their passion for color in fabric arts. It all goes into the mix – but it has to be re-made new.

Color, ideas, things that won’t go together – or will they? This is the starting point.

Marianne Gagnier, New York City. February 2014

1 I am indebted to my husband, Kim Sloane, for seeing the context of my work in ways I cannot. Kim Sloane, “The Paintings of Marianne Gagnier,” www.thought-form.net, January 25, 2014. (last accessed February 15, 2014).

2 Jenny Jaske, “Art (Un)Doing Theory,” The Brooklyn Rail, February 5, 2014, available at <http://www.brooklynrail.org/2014/02/criticspage/art-undoing-theory (last accessed February 15, 2014).

Marianne Gagnier‘s current show, of this world –new paintings, is on view at The Painting Center through 22 February.