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Last night I walked into the studio in a state of suppressed
excitement and curiosity, because Ron has begun working again
and I wanted to see if he had made anything new. It was hard
to see where I was going, you know, because it's really dark
out there and hard to find your way down that flagstone path.
I opened the studio door, and was immediately dazzled and
blown away with color and light.... He was in there, all
right, dusted with plastic shavings and full of paint drips,
looking happy and obsessed and surrounded by new paintings
in various stages of completion. He started talking to me,
telling me about the new material, and the trials he's having
with paint and gel and metallic additives. But I could barely
listen to him, because my peripheral vision was being invaded
by this flash of brightness and motion, and I kept wanting
to look to my left. An intense, animated little painting
was hanging over there, and, for lack of a better explanation,
it was trying to get my attention. I felt I needed to listen
to Ron, but I kept having to look over at this lively little
gem practically waving at me to get my attention away
from Ron and onto IT. Finally I had to say to Ron, "Just
a minute," and I laughed and pointed and said "WHAT
is THAT? I gotta go LOOK," I says, and go over to greet
the painting. It's about three feet tall, intense gold-yellow
and charcoal, shaped, made of triangles and a 4-sided polygon,
and there's something unusual going on because it's not his
usual style, although there is typical color mastery
and perspective illusion. This painting is completely gestural,
and witty, with all this mysterious energy in it; its middle
is sort of torqued, so there's a potential/kinetic
spring to it. I fell in love with it immediately, forgot
my studio manners and blurted out "No, really, what
are you DOING?"
"Oh,
it's just scraps from off the floor," he says nonchalantly-like-a-fox,
taking a drag from a cigarette.
"Huh,"
I say, pondering "scraps off the floor."
"Yeah,
scraps." [Leftover pieces from cutting out the shapes
of the works in the NuShape Series from 4 x 8 sheets of the
PVC support I am using.] "From the bigger shapes. It's
for fun. Something I just started doing in-between the big
paintings. I don't draw them, I just fit them together as
they come. It's just a dumb hinge," he laughs. "It's
Yellow Hinge."
"Well
keep having fun," I say earnestly. "I think you're
on to something."
"Oh,
well, I don't know. Maybe," he says, with that edge
of doubt he sometimes uses to hide glee.
Today
I was helping Ron rewrite a paragraph in the press release
about this new series, and we made some discoveries that
I loved. For instance, in skimming Jung looking for a good
art word, I came across a reference to alchemy and its connection
(in Jung's mind) to Christ's attempt at the union of spirit
and matter in the creative process. Jung had a dream-vision,
of Christ made out of green-gold shiny stuff, which he called
a satisfying representation of matter (metal, the gold) united
with life (the greeny part), and a symbol of spiritual transcendence.
Reference to Christ might be too strong, but it immediately
struck me, because to me it feels a lot like what Ron's been
experiencing the terrible struggle to hold the tension
of opposites, and achieve creative unity or balance via process
and production. Jung goes on about the "uncommon gold",
the "spiritual gold" that eventuates when spirit
and matter harmonize... Well -- the GOLD blew my mind because
his Yellow Hinge, that pivotal little painting, did you see
it yet? seems like a turning point where his occult process
has been expressed; its authentic POINT emerged, if you will;
it's spread-eagled, or kind of winged; it's "torqued";
and Ron is very fond of a new greeny-gold acrylic color this
year... (made by GOLDEN paints!) [Yellow Hinge is in fact
painted with Yellow-Gold Golden acrylic paint about
the same time I was working on Open Rectilinar Box
which does have a Green-Gold coloured top, and it is one
of my favorite colours. RD] Given that, plus the fact
that this painting came "up off the floor," and
is very spontaneous in its conception, I have to say I think
it's a psychic marker and an artistic move forward, which
he's been desperate for. It excited me and made me happy
about Yellow Hinge, that's all. Happy for Ron.
Barbara Bentley
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