Impulse Painting

While straightening up the garage yesterday, I ran across this painting. This is a detail of an "unfinished" painting that I painted some 20 years ago or more - so, apparently it is finished. I never even gave it a title.

Usually a painting is at least somewhat planned out before you begin painting but this one was a doodle-painting, where I just started painting and let the composition evolve. Some of my own work that I most enjoyed producing, and which seems most interesting to look at are doodle-works.

However, this one and another one are both 90% finished because there was no plan and I found it difficult to resolve the painting when I got to the end. Besides not having a plan, probably the more likely reason the paintings are unfinished is because I started to care about them. There comes this point when I stopped impulsively creating and thought, "Hey I like this. I want to paint a really excellent conclusion to it." And then I was suddenly stymied. Because the whole reason why the painting was going so well was because I wasn't overly concerned about it. It is the most allusive ability to tap into intentionally. But when it happens it is an absolute joy.

Obelisk and Angel

I failed trigonometry in college. But while I was taking notes I made a doodle in the margins that later became this painting. (Just for the record: I missed the first class session where the students were told that they could not use a calculator. Besides, I had just spent $75 on an advanced calculator and I was determined to use it! I could not imagine a scenario where anyone would not take advantage of a calculator if they could. However, my professor did not see it that way. He was about 70 years old in 1977 and he could not imagine anyone using a calculator. His opinion won out on the registrar's report.)

While I was interested in algorithms to a point, I was more interested in the experiment of combining abstract concepts with surrealism. The "Obelisk and the Angel" was one of those experiments. The obelisk and the face of the angel were rendered in an abstract form, while the remainder was rendered in a surrealistic form. The doodle was originally drawn with a blue ball point pen, the look of which is retained in the image of the obelisk. The hand is threatening to keep the angel from ascending beyond the height of the obelisk. The profundity of which escapes me for the moment. Any Freudian suggestions?

The "Obelisk and Angel" was painted on canvas with oils.