Politics of Scale

“You should go bigger” seemed to be the mantra when I went to school.

“I think you would benefit from a larger surface to work on,” my drawing teacher told me. I thought she was sexy, so I bought bigger paper. The other students seemed to be able to fit their drawings of Jack the Dripper on a standard 18 by 24 sheet of newsprint. I was guided to modify the flimsy, rickety easel I was using to accommodate sheets of 24 by 36 paper.

At the time, I was obsessed with AbEx and a little bit with action painting. Professor Murchek’s comment about transformations in the Metamorphoses requiring “a certain kind of force or forcefulness” (this was over 15 years ago, I may be mangling the conversation) was still bouncing around in my head. My drawing teacher encouraged me to loosen up when drawing and throw my body into it. I kept ripping the paper. That weekend I bought heavier paper. Art started to get expensive.

After school, I had a large room to work in, so I kept up with the large paintings. Then we moved and I had no place to work. Over the years, I completely neglected my work. After renovating the basement, I set up a small space to work in.

This time I kept everything smaller. I just don’t have the space. Last weekend, I took a modest sized painting and cut out three 5 by 5 inch paintings out of it, mounted them on custom made frames (the original was on hardboard).

I think they rock.

I don’t know if there is any politics here. Whatever!