15th entry, July 8th 2008, 2nd installment "To Move A Bloom"

There is a timelessness to love.

It is a universal thing, known by many species. No matter the culture it is understood. The strength of which distances in time and spaces between have no effect. I wanted to add this concept in the piece. To make it "generational", weathered but beautiful and in this wish an idea evolved in compliment to the two inspirations (see previous entry).


As if in the attic as part of something greater - something lost for a period of time and forgotten by those unfamiliar. A painting that represented a deep and beautiful story between two people. A love story about to be learned by someone whose life is a direct result of it, but continues it in their own life and is inspired by the piece.

I know that the concept when read is wordy but please forgive. I haven't ever really written these thoughts out before in or during my creative process. In this attempt to communicate them I think I over word because I fear misdirecting the reader or prejudgement by the reader of the piece lol. I digress.

The key words here are "timeless, tested and beautiful, weathered but strong, forgotten then discovered and new again".


In order to accomplish this I created a type of "plaster" (for lack of a better word) and mixed it with red rose essence. I chose rose because that flower is specifically mentioned in the E. E. Cummings' poem (last entry).

This offset the smokey ivory natural pigment of the plaster with an antique rose red based light beige (1st photograph). The essence is of a much higher water saturation than the plaster.

When dried rapidly and strategically adding a local influence of heat, the folds in this combination pull together producing hairline creases in it.

So even though they aren't, to the observer they look like cracks (2nd and 3rd photographs). More heat applied equals greater and more frequent creases.

This added a raw earth hand cast quality to it, like the ancient stone works of Rome. I did not want to simply paint marbling or cracks in the piece because I wanted it tangible. After all this is about love, not like right?

I wanted to produce as close to the real deal as I could without compromising the integrity and longevity of the actual piece here.

Once dried it was time to further this impression of my terms. I wanted to enhance this timeless, weathered, forgotten and discovered concept by placing on top of the antique rose color a cracked oxen rust. It would make the base tone of the piece richer and without over burdening it with texture create depth visually.


The technique was performed much like other crackling, however my gluey substance was made with milkweed and aloe (4th and 5th photograph).

Once the piece was covered I then applied my oxen rust(6th photograph).

One has to consider humidity when performing this because it can be a god awful mess if it's wrong. It has to be dry and breezy outside or it cannot be done the way I like it. Timing is actually everything here because both aloe and milk weed have high evaporation rates.

As it dries small cracks appear in the superficial color pulling against itself (7th photograph). When done right the color is what actually becomes separated not the substance itself so the piece is still as smooth as brass with zero flaking.

The end result was perfect for my intention. So with my foundation laid, the piece made it's way from newborn to it's infancy stage.