The Unseen Realities Glimmering

Curtis MacLean

Oil on board

2008

Sometimes the artistic process can tell you a lot about life, if you pay attention.

This painting started out as a warehouse window - I was pursuing a concept that I did not feel too strongly about - eventually I just couldn't bear to make something I wasn't engaged with. The important thing here, though, is that I made the decision to rub out my work with a sanding block only a few hours before the painting was due for critique. I had known for a long time while working on the painting that rubbing it out would be the right thing to do, but I wanted to convince myself that I could still work with it. 

It's like convincing yourself that you can work with the life you have, when you know that what you need to do is just rub everything out.

The painting is a remnant. 

What's left is the base of the painting that couldn't be erased - and to me, it's really beautiful. Like a picture of spiritual purging. I held on to my original idea for so long because I knew there was something worthwhile there - but everything worthwhile about it was only revealed when everything else was removed. That which is truly real is invisible, and I feel like I captured some of that unseen reality in the course of the process of this painting; hence the title.

Time for some spring cleaning.