LARRY STARR-KARLIN, JD, MA
Size matters. In these COVID times, our lives are made smaller, more cautious, restricted in movement. I feel the need to expand. In painting, as scale increases, we go from fine movements of the fingers in manipulating the brush, to movement of the wrist, to movement of the arm, to involvement of the whole body. These differences are readily felt by the viewer (at least by the viewer who does not stand back from the physicality of the work and seeks only to extract some meaning.) Where I reach high to make a mark, the viewer will look upward and perceive the effects of that stretch. At 55 inches in height and 48 inches in width, this work is only beginning to approach the size that deKooning described as allowing the artist (and the viewer) to stand within the painting; my ‘wingspread’ is just over six feet. I would like to go larger. Unfortunately, reproduction in a virtual exhibition may nullify the impact of scale, but still, the physical work exists to be viewed by anyone sufficiently interested.
Bentley 11
(Oil on Canvas, 55” x 48”)
This is the eleventh, the latest, and the largest painting in a series of gestural abstractions. These works reflect my personal reach for more freedom and expressiveness. I get to experience how quickly I create constraints for myself - a limited language of brush strokes, for instance, in the service of coherence, unity, or some such principle – and how I then have to find a way to break those bounds without devolving the work into chaos. Each painting is the tangible result of an adventure, not at all the mere execution of a preconceived notion. Ironically, if this were not a virtual exhibition, I could not yet exhibit this particular piece as the paint is still wet.