Gateways

" Gateways", watercolor 8"x11", May 2012

Finally, spending time in the studio with watercolors. I have been drawn to grids... I imagine patch-working is imprinted on my mind. Here, I was using only three colors, peacock blue, cadmium yellow and scarlet lake. I was also experimenting with layering washes. I used Arches cold press 140 lb paper and what a treat that was. I always used cheaper papers and I will not do that much more. The only thing about the paper is that it buckled after using hairdryer. And so I stretched some more paper, soaking it first in water and using gummed tape. I also will experiment with hot press Arches paper to see how I like that.

What to say about the piece? The grey shapes just wanted to be there in that way as a contrast  to the colors and shapes of the background: colorful vs. neutral, organic vs. geometric. In a way, to me it may suggest that we come into the world of colors and patterns through mother's gateway. We appear as if from nothing into the something that the world is. And that suggest a huge contrast in existence. We pattern our existence through our nervous system and for the most part the dimension we came from is forgotten. The doorway is however there, within our consciousness and the movement is inward, in contrast to the physical birth being outward movement.