The Lounge --Part I

Last night I began work on a new piece.

I began by covering Stonehenge paper with a wash of oil paint and solvent.  I used to begin my pieces this way years ago, and I got away from it because it is incredibly nonarchival...as in, it probably wouldn't even make it through my lifetime, but I have a plan, plus a few paradigm shifts which make archiviality not-important. 

After finishing the preliminary compositon/ color selection with pastels and colored pencils, I plan on wetting the entire piece and dipping in copious amounts of archival glue, and then bonding it to a piece of birch panel.  After this dries, I will go into it with oil paints.
       I have had an image in my mind for many years now. I came upon it in my early NYC years when I was going out to a lot of trendy bars full of high  concept design and fancy beautiful young people.  The music of Supreme Beings of Leisure plays in the background.  Its a bar in the penthouse of a many-storied building somewhere in the thick of the city. It has improbably tall vaulted ceilings  and the floor is baby blue shag carpet.  The bar stools are blue vinyl.  The walls are powder blue. A woman sits at bar who is part woman, part other worldly creature.  There are people around, and the mood is dreamy and relaxed.

Inspirations include:
                                   

Power Party, by the incredible Inka Essenhigh,

Marcos Chin, who does the LavaLife ads.

Anyway, this is what I came up with so far:

The beginning of a chandelier swinging up above.  I lecherous bartendar begins to reveal himself.  I have been reading about chance in art, as illuminated by Marcel DuChamp and the Dadaists.  I enjoy the way the oil and solvent soaks into the paper almost immediately, and the movement of my body is visible in the brushstrokes, which are completely unplanned, spontaneous, aggressive, dancy....  These suggest a beginning to the composition that I "pick out" with my pencil, and develop later.

Also, another beginning which I am feeling pretty happy about....