Micro-looks

This is from a piece I did, that I actually have a title for (wow), called '9 Blocks'. I am rather fond of it. Like many of my works lately, I think the causal observer might glance at it and not take it in. Not what I see in it at least. I suppose that is an age old artist worry. In this one, as with some other recent ones, I have played with masking, in hopes that the 'pure' negative space will lead one to focus on the 'micro negative space' created by the overlaying. The more I think about it, this new style I have been playing with seems to be all about negative space, something I was told over and over I had entirely too much of in art class. I am posting these details of my recent pieces rather than showing the whole picture, in hopes that you can see a bit of what I see when I look at these, and not just the easily consumable chaos and colors. I particularly like the 'bleed' at the edges of the block in this one. This bleed is caused by the under laying watercolor and the ink as it seeped past the border of the mask. It's as if one world is seeping out into another. I have always loved the way liquids have spread into paper, going as far as they can into the little spaces and grooves between the fibers. I have often marveled at coffee stains or the spray marks left by stray food or water. It's a kind of art you just can't make.