It's the visual weight of the final image that is important to me. Not too heavily chaotic, not so light it floats off the page. My goal is to create an ideogram, a collection of separate parts that together have meaning larger than each part itself. It's a Gestalt thing.
A painting is a diary of ideas turned into visual images over a particular period of time, say August 2008 to April 2009. As images come to mind (and don't go away), these are added to the painting. They may be representational, abstract, or fields of color. The work is about combining the different images into one cohesive whole. When something doesn't work,an electric sander removes that portion of the painting. If an interesting pentimento results, I leave this exposed. Back and forth, adding and subtracting, until the painting has reached a conclusion for me.
CONTACT
Christine Drake lives and works in Lexington, Virginia. Feel free to contact her by sending an email to info@christinedrake.com. More images may be seen at Saatchi Online, London, England and at The Drawing Center, New York, USA.
