Process Is Beauty

I always knew there was beauty in the process but I didn’t fully realize it until one day I looked back at some images I had taken of me working on my second full-body, life-sized, equestrian work, Sculpture In Motion.

I used an old classical technique called grisaille and I was in the process of glazing the first layer of color over the finished monochromatic painting. The color changed the entire feel and mood of the piece. The color brought this life and vibrancy to the work that even shocked me as if I had never experienced it before… though I have used this technique many times in the past. I looked at that image of me with my work, in the middle of the process and thought to myself, I almost love that better than the “finished” piece.

Here in the timeline of this piece, the introduction of “color” was a transition that emanated both physical and metaphysical beauty and I felt like my eyes were suddenly open to that realization for the first time. I’d like to create more works that focus on this concept but leave them this way as finished paintings… forever mid-process. A painting is truly never really “finished” anyways.”